If anything the cities will be added to the team names. Ageo did that last year. Technically Ageo is a city as well, but the company uses it as the company name already.
So nothing happened after Ageo Medics changed name into Saitama Ageo Medics. I wonder how Hisamitsu Springs, NEC Red Rockets and so on will be called next season, but nothing happened. I thought the changes were done by now... 
Think of it this way. You are in the gym with some of the best players in the country and on the national team every day. It is a learning experience and a jump in skill. Plus you know that the team knows how to make the players succeed given their talents. Consistent coaching (few changes) makes it a gym you want to be in. Teams in constant flux with little to no talent are the opposite.
I totally get that, in theory. But as I'm new to this, I was wondering about examples of how it actually paid off for anyone. Of the players I know, who are actually playing in the NT or on a team, Miyashita, Namami Seki, Kurogo, Koga, came out of High School and kept going. I guess Kurogo had a half year on the bench, and might still be there if the Saori's didn't retire.. All these hitters for Hisamitsu: Imamura, Nomoto, Inoue, Nakagawa (she might still prove to be a player), Hikari Kato ... and but just think if Nagaoka wasn't injured (or in Europe). They'd never play.
Did Risa and Yuki come out of H.S and sit on the bench? Nabeya? Miwako Osanai came out of H.S. and played for Hitachi and ... well, okay, I'm biased toward her BECAUSE I got to see her play.
I'm really interested in this because I've just experienced H.S and college ball. I get that it's a major jump, and that being a star in H.S. is easier than being a star in Club, but it seems like the ones who continue with greatness (small g) are the ones who keep playing. Not sit on a bench and get trained well.
So nothing happened after Ageo Medics changed name into Saitama Ageo Medics. I wonder how Hisamitsu Springs, NEC Red Rockets and so on will be called next season, but nothing happened. I thought the changes were done by now...
I think Jeniawithlove posted a link to an article that talked about some of the hurdles in this transition. If I find it, I'll post it.
Relating this to my inquiry about what good H.S. players might do, another part of this V.League transition was intended to "up" the level of coaching. And damn, I might go so far as to suggest the V.League might hint at something like they do in Brazil with the limitation of high level players on teams. It would make the league better, in that we might not know for certain who's in the Final 8 before the season begins.
Seriously, spread Imamura, Kato, Inoue, Nomoto, Nakagawa, Miyu Ishikawa, and Yuki Nishikawa across the bottom feeders. Give them good coaches if you can, we'd have a better league.
I totally get that, in theory. But as I'm new to this, I was wondering about examples of how it actually paid off for anyone. Of the players I know, who are actually playing in the NT or on a team, Miyashita, Namami Seki, Kurogo, Koga, came out of High School and kept going. I guess Kurogo had a half year on the bench, and might still be there if the Saori's didn't retire.. All these hitters for Hisamitsu: Imamura, Nomoto, Inoue, Nakagawa (she might still prove to be a player), Hikari Kato ... and but just think if Nagaoka wasn't injured (or in Europe). They'd never play.
Did Risa and Yuki come out of H.S and sit on the bench? Nabeya? Miwako Osanai came out of H.S. and played for Hitachi and ... well, okay, I'm biased toward her BECAUSE I got to see her play.
I'm really interested in this because I've just experienced H.S and college ball. I get that it's a major jump, and that being a star in H.S. is easier than being a star in Club, but it seems like the ones who continue with greatness (small g) are the ones who keep playing. Not sit on a bench and get trained well.
In the old days of Yoko Zutterland in 1990s, Hitachi was the team to be on as it was basically the national team. Zutterland got asked to go from high school to Hitachi. Her mom was the head coach at Waseda, my school for a year but a Japanese Ivy League school. She wanted to get an education before playing. She was basically told to go to hell and she wouldn’t be playing on the national team. Her dreams was to play for the national team in Japan. However she was born in the States and made it to a USA national team tryout and made the USA team. She played for the Springs (then Daiei Orange Attackers). It was incredibly shortsighted by the coach.
Some teams have to put the high school or college players immediately.
OMG
I guess I deserve this, in a 'get what you hope for way':
The Canon--Kanon Sonoda, and Saki Goya, have signed with PFU Blue Cats (They were originally drafted out of Higashi Kyushu Ryukoku --the High School where Hisamitsu get a lot of players--by Okayama Seagulls).
We'll see if this puts the fear into the top 4 Star conference teams 
Yoichi Kato, who resigned as PFU Head Coach, the dude with the hairdo which was the envy of all other coaches, has joined JT Marvelous in some "coach" capacity. Source
You gotta see it live to appreciate it to its fullest
Twilst:
Masayasu Sakamoto has joined PFU as 'director', which I think means Head Coach without a hairdo.
Hitachi's Head Coach situation is still unclear. It might be the dude who was on the sidelines all last season.
Toyota is still without a Head Coach
Over on that volleybox web site I just updated and corrected the rosters for all the V1 teams and then added the schools from where all the current players came from to their respective resumes.
I think these are the only Universities that have ever won the All Japan Intercollegiate Championship in 40-50 years, and how many players have come from them. It's mostly just current players but I have added a few players to University squads who are still there. They may also include a few retired players, like the Saoris. So the first four are probably about even as far as current V1 players go, probably around 10-15. After these, it drops off a cliff.
And here's the High School counts. If a player played both HS and College before joining a Club they would be counted in both of these lists. In other words, there is no breakdown between players who joined a Club straight out of HS and those who went to College first--which is kind of what I was interested in finding out 
Again, Higashi's count, for example, includes some players who are still there, not in a Club yet.
My general feeling is that more players from HS join a club each year than those who choose to go to college first, but I may be wrong. It also seems like there are a lot more High Schools feeding the V.League than Colleges (makes sense), but the majority of players come from a small subset of each level of schooling. And the top teams tend to draft from the top schools. As Ryu Takamiya has pointed out, for example, Hisamitsu gets a lot of Higashi players and Toray gets a lot of Shimokitazawa players. The bottom feeders are left to draft from places like "Hokkaido Girls School of Cooking and Sewing".
I may have some of the School names wrong because, ya know, Google Translate.
It's surprising to me that when I look at the players from these schools, like Nippon Sport University for example, I don't immediately recognize most of the names (even after I just spent time adding them, lol), certainly couldn't confidently tell you which Club they play for. A little wave of sadness came over me to realize that a lot of these young women will join a club, sit on the bench for a few years and then retire, unknown. I hope they were paid enough to support themselves and enjoyed their time more than they would have being an assistant middle manager at some faceless corporation as they transition to adulthood.
I mentioned somewhere around here I'm anxious to get back to Japan v Japan Joyful Volleyball. I see the V.Summer League starts soon. I can watch it live in HD, probably single camera no commentary. Don't know how satisfying it will be, except to see some marvelous B-Squad Action.
Also I decided to re-watch the V.League Match I had noted as "Match of the Year" from last season: December 9, 2018 - Okayama Seagulls v Toyota. OMG ! Comedy Gold ! In the very best sense of everything. A 4-set match and both teams took 300 swings. There was Block Coverage Galore and so many front court digs I couldn't contain myself. Had to take several breaks and tried to find someone or something to thank for giving me this entertainment. 
At some point, you need to go see this in person.
Masayoshi Manabe is Club Owner of Victorina Himeji, and Kiyoshi Abo is the General Manager. Source
| Masayoshi Manabe | Kiyoshi Abo |
I've seen Kiyoshi Abo as The Dude on the Sidelines for some U-Tournaments, I believe. Nothing more about him. Doesn't even have a Japanese Wikipedia page.
This must have happened a while ago. I noticed a News item on the Himeji Home page from April that called Manabe the Team Owner. Not sure what impact this will have. If Manabe as GM the first year was responsible for putting together the roster that went from Zero to Championship in one year ... Abo's got some big shoes to fill. I assume Manabe is responsible for picking Abo as GM?
[Edit] So ... Manabe bought the team from who? Himeji Victorina Co., Ltd. (株式会社 姫路ヴィクトリーナ) is listed as the Club Owner (in the Wikipedia Article I wrote 
but hasn't been published yet). But what kind of company was that? They don't have a Wikipedia Page either. It must have been one of those things like Michael Cohen set up to pay off Trump's mistresses. QPL should like this now that there is no (shadow) company involved. Himeji is their Town and Victorina is a little girl and a bird.
Official character Vic and Lina
And fairy "Vic" of Egret strongest combination of girl "Lina" which aims to win!
| Vic | Lina | |
|---|---|---|
| Fairy Egret love volleyball. I thought that of Lena, has become the practice partner of Lina Put the body. Circumference: 66cm (5 size No.) Specialty: (because the eye is rotated turns) No rotation Favorite Food: throne climate (I like round things) |
A girl flapping her wings to win. It is possible to fly high even where with the feather of the thorn butterfly. I practice hard every day so that I can become a top-notch player Jersey number: V Shirt Name: RINA Specialty: long flight time one person time difference utilizing Favorite Food: Himeji Oden (especially radish) |
Lina is Rina. Technically there are no Ls is Japanese and so it is pronounced with an R.
Many Japanese pro soccer teams have combined foreign words for their team names.
In this case Victory and Rina. Vissel Kobe (soccer) is victory and vessel as Kobe is a port city.
Vic also turns into a volleyball.
Manabe was the one that created the team. He established relationships with a number of sponsors. At first he was the GM, but I would have believed that he was the president or owner of the team. Now that the team has reached J1, he is trying to ensure its financial survival as the president/owner. I am not saying that the team has financial issues, it is only 3 years old and already they have some good companies behind them. However other teams also have deep pockets.
Ageo has not changed since they jumped to the top league. They added Saitama, which is a city and prefecture name. Ageo is based in Saitama prefecture and no other Women’s teams are based there.
With Victorina it is just the listing of the business name. Technically a team in the VLEAGUE is a franchise. In the past teams were tied into businesses so in order to get in touch with them it was through a company’s marketing department.
Manabe really thought a lot of this through. He played in Italy while with the men’s national team and led the women’s back to the podium. For girls in Japan volleyball is the number 1 sport to play.
In the past teams were tied into businesses so in order to get in touch with them it was through a company’s marketing department.
The elephant in the room for me is who is going to pay the players going forward with this "Pro" thing? It's been my understanding, as absurd as it seems, that the players actually worked for their sponsoring company--doing data input or whatever. If they are going to do away with this relationship between Corporate Sponsor and Volleyball Team, then the girls will have to support themselves somehow. I imagine this has a bit to do with why the girls might be against the "new way" (according to my Google Understanding of the now infamous Jeniawithlove linked article)
Who pays Haruka Miyashita and the rest of the Okayama NoSmilers? I'll bet Victorina Himeji has a real deal pro-type happening.
Manabe really thought a lot of this through.
I may have criticized this or that roster decision of his over the years, but I've always thought highly of him. He and Yoshie are a good team. And they have this "Dream Team" of ex-players who are on board to do ... dreamy things like the Milk Tour and Victorina Academia:
Himeji seems so far ahead of the curve on all this, maybe I should start a thread devoted to them and how awesome they are 
Think of the new version of the Japanese league as follows. Why has the Japanese team sucked prior to the 2010-2012 medals? The ladies had to work during the week. Instead of focusing on improving my playing skills, I have to do my TPS reports for accounting.
Manabe knew this as the head coach of the national team. He helped get Saori Kimura, Yuko Sano and Ebata overseas during his time. This got them out of the day to day work grind and put them into professional teams.
When you watch the Italian women's or Turkish women's league, you might see that there are large sponsors or a number of sponsors on the jerseys. The sport as a whole is not flush with cash. Manabe is really tying into the healthy part of the sport for kids. Tying them into getting nutrition with Morinaga and grocery stores. Make this a family sport from mom to child and maybe through dad in as well.
Manabe has been smart and not tried to splash cash around. He knows he's got to build the financial foundation, then get the team making great connection in the community (like Okayama has been doing), start winning and then watch out.
As for Okayama and looking at their sponsor list, it is much more local with the phrase Chugoku (region of the country where Okayama is) and Okayama shown frequently. Lots of small sponsors enable the team to pay salaries. Again, Okayama has not really used a foreigner and the team may feel that it costs too much to do that. I would guess that $100-$150,000 would probably be a reasonable price for a foreign player on the low end. This would probably cover 3-4 players salaries at least.
Victorina's capital stock (how much money was in the bank for the team) as of Dec. 2017 was 111.7 million yen or $991,000 per their website.
Manabe knew this as the head coach of the national team. He helped get Saori Kimura, Yuko Sano and Ebata overseas during his time. This got them out of the day to day work grind and put them into professional teams.
Okay, now there's a good reason to go play in Europe! That makes a huge difference.
I'm watching the Hisamitsu v Himeji Match right now. Hisamitsu took the first set 25-23 and lost the second one 18-25.
Mai Yamaguchi is doing intermission interviews. Himeji newcomer from Shoin University MB Arisa Nagano is pure Himeji Gold. Check her out. She's pretty and knows how to do interviews 
I thought they were going to play a Tie Break, but I guess not.
Minami Higane started at setter for Hisamitsu. She looks comfortable. Good on her. Nao Horigome, of the infamous JVA prison photo roster shot scandal, turned glamorous by the Himeji Photographers, started as setter for Himeji. She's 158cm. Himeji's OH (C)
Sakie Takahashi is 166. They're going to have to work on that.
I see that Himeji is going to play another match, against Okayama, in 20 minutes. Yes, looks like everyone plays two matches, either back-to back 8:00 & 9:30 or 8:00 & 11:00
Ahh, Okayama v Himeji. It's good to be home