There is a school that is attracting attention in Osaka, a hotbed of high school baseball. It is Osaka Gakuin Daiichi High School, which won its first championship by defeating Osaka Toin and Riseisha in the Osaka Prefecture preliminaries of the Spring Kinki Regional Tournament. The manager of the school is the owner of an insurance agency. With the opening of the summer Osaka Tournament just around the corner, we took a look at the management of the president and manager who pushed the school to the top.
“A year ago, I became the coach saying, ‘We’re going to put an end to the era of the two strongest teams,’ and the players believe that too. The school is also putting a lot of effort into (strengthening the team). I feel like I’ve somewhat achieved one of my goals.”
After practice, they dined together in suits
That’s what Osaka Gakuin High School coach Eiichi Tsuji (48) said. His main job is not as a teacher or school staff member, but as the president of an insurance agency with more than 30 employees. After working as a president in the morning, he wears a uniform on the ground in the evening. After practice, he returns to his suit and attends seminars and dinners.
This talented president, who spends such busy days, made headlines this spring not for his management but for his role as a high school baseball coach. In the fourth round of the prefectural qualifying round for the spring Kinki Tournament in May, they defeated Riseisha, a team that has participated in the spring and summer Koshien tournaments 15 times and won the 2019 summer Koshien tournament, 9-8. In the quarterfinals, they faced Osaka Toin, a team that has won the Koshien tournament nine times in total, including two consecutive spring and summer tournaments. However, they made a comeback in the ninth inning, and their ace pitched a complete game with only one run allowed. They won the close match 2-1, and became a hot topic of conversation.
This was the first time in 15 years since PL Gakuen in the summer of 2009 that the team had defeated these two schools, which have led Osaka high school baseball in recent years, in the same tournament.
He has a rare career history for a high school baseball coach. He played as an outfielder on the baseball team at Nara High School, a prefectural preparatory school. He continued playing baseball at Osaka City University (now Osaka Municipal University). After graduating, he joined Sumitomo Bank (now Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation). After achieving the top sales performance in the country as a banker, he moved to Alico Japan (now MetLife Insurance), a major foreign life insurance company, just before turning 30. There, too, he achieved the top performance for 13 consecutive years.
“I worked harder than others. When I was a banker, I would stay up all night. I didn’t have time, so sometimes I would just change my tie and go to work. I didn’t want to be the best.”
In 2018, he became independent by starting up a life insurance agency specializing in corporations. He has become well-known in the industry, publishing business books and hosting seminars for salesmen.
On the other hand, he was just as passionate about baseball as he was about his work. Although he was not a perfect player, he was a talented coach.