Moving on
Seki will still be main setter. This time I think both Shibata and Matsui are on the same level. I don't know how Shibata did in France but seeing as how that made her get an invite to the 1st selection she could probably be chosen over Matsui to bring to VNL. I don't know that Nakagawa kid so well but she's young and very unlikely to have chemistry with this team. They can always put her in the B Team to make Akimoto shine.
Can someone explain why some girls have stars beside their names?
Tsukasa Nakagawa, Wada, Gromos, Meguro and Nishimura
It indicates that it's their first time being selected in the NT
No not really. Are you familiar with her?
Btw she absolutely won't pass as a local. Foluke speaks better Japanese than her. I can't even tell if she really knows Japanese or she just memorised what she had to say to Motoko Obayashi. Regardless that's not really important right now since Lars Nootbar got a pass for speaking in full English while playing for Samurai Japan.
Article in Sports Hochi says that her dad played basketball with Toyota in Japan with the current men’s (and former women’s national basketball team) head coach Tom Hovasse. So if anything, Hovasse May have put a word in with Manabe after talking with his friend during his time with the women’s basketball team. Both having Japanese wives, let alone her being so tall, and getting the question of “do you want to play for a national team?”, pretty hard to say no.
she did study Japanese as a minor at Northern Illinois. One challenge of course is studying overseas (outside of Japan), how much speaking practice you get. Multi-racial couples have to decide which language they’ll speak at home. English or Japanese. Some kids may do Japanese classes on the weekend, to enable them to speak with grandparents when traveling to Japan.
I will say that on first listen her speaking May be a smidge slow, but when you switch from an environment where Japanese is not the first language you speak everyday, doing an interview is probably the last thing you want to have. She did fine on that account.
she did study Japanese as a minor at Northern Illinois. One challenge of course is studying overseas (outside of Japan), how much speaking practice you get. Multi-racial couples have to decide which language they’ll speak at home. English or Japanese. Some kids may do Japanese classes on the weekend, to enable them to speak with grandparents when traveling to Japan.
I will say that on first listen her speaking May be a smidge slow, but when you switch from an environment where Japanese is not the first language you speak everyday, doing an interview is probably the last thing you want to have. She did fine on that account.
Do you know if JVA will eventually register her as Angelina Gromos instead of Angelina Yuki Kobayashi since she's not going to use that anyway
Do you know if JVA will eventually register her as Angelina Gromos instead of Angelina Yuki Kobayashi since she's not going to use that anyway
Kobayashi would be grandparents/mom name. Player probably gets choice of name on the back.
But the JVA are going to make you put your Japanese name on their paperwork.
never expected Nagaoka to ever return to NT. I thought she was done and would retired before Ishii even.
Sakoda's not a staff though right
Sakoda's not a staff though right
She's there for Miyu obviously
She's there for Miyu obviously
They're always together lmao
Sakoda was the one who dropped the biggest hint about Nagaoka at the beginning of the season. The article is still floating around in the first couple pages of this thread if not on the last thread so this doesn't surprise me at all. I just hope her knees holds up. If Kosheleva can do it I'm sure she can too.
Sakoda is not an official staff but she's still part of Manabe's entourage until Paris so she can come to their training camps anytime
Their training camp is open to the public until the 21st but after the second selection they won't allow it anymore.
There is a small entrance fee. Fans are not allowed to take photos or videos of the players. No shouting or cheering. Gifts for the athletes are allowed, autographs allowed. An allotted duration of 30 mins per group inside with a maximum of 20 people. Last year they only allowed 10 outside the gym due to covid but now it's 20 and they're allowed inside.
Kobata visited them last Wednesday too. She posted through story that "you're allowed inside as long as you don't cry, die or try to marry any of the players" 
(as per instagram's translator)
By the way Kobata has been doing volleyball youth camps at Kagoshima. I don't know if she's from there.
I like Soga's vibe even if she doesn't make the VNL cut I hope they test her for the B Team
that's tsukasa nakagawa. hassan just mistook her for soga.
i think gromos went back to the us lol. she updated her story hours ago like 3am in japan. why would she post at 3am when their training starts early.
wait it says satsumasendai so all along i thought that was in sendai???
