BY HARUO AKINO

When we think about the club activities in middle school in Japan, it is common for students to belong to one of the clubs for one to three years. In the U.S., the concept of sport club activities is different from Japan and they have the system called "season system." There are quite big differences locally in the U.S., so let me tell you what I experienced as a student studying at a middle school in Columbus, Ohio. In the season system you can change club activities seasonally, so most of the club's activities last just three or four months. For example, you can join athletics in the spring, baseball in the summer, American football in the fall, and basketball in the winter. There are many students who change their clubs like this.

But belonging to the sport club approved by the school is difficult and you cannot always play whatever you want because there is a physical test called "tryout," so you have to pass it to enter the club, join practice and play games. In the club activity, each grade has its own teamﾑ7th grader's team, 8th grader's team, and so on. So you can't be certain that you will pass the tryout for the next grade's team.

What I have told you so far is about the club activity approved by the school, but there are other club activities held by volunteers, and other ones called "Summer School" in the summer vacation, which have no tryout and have nothing to do with whether you are good at it or not. So you can also enjoy any sports you like in those clubs.

My experience to join the basketball club when I was in Ohio is that I had a tryout for 7th grade team in November. I had been playing basketball since elementary school in Japan. There was a five day-tryout and about 80 students came. Everyday students failed in the tryout and finally 15 students including myself could pass.

After the tryout, we practiced every weekday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. for two weeks. At the time practice began, I didn't understand what my teammates or coach were talking about because I had only been in the U.S. for three months at that time. I continued practicing though. From the end of November to February, except for two weeks of the winter vacation, we had games on every Tuesday and Thursday. When we had games at our school, friends', families', and cheerleaders' support made the game exciting. The day we had games, of course the coach and even teammates came to school dressed in suits and ties. The result of our 14 games was 7 wins and 7 losses. I was mostly a reserve, so didn't play an active part. At the end of the season we had a tournament around Columbus, but we lost in the first round.

One unforgettable scene was in a game with only four seconds left. I picked up a loose ball and made a shot at the buzzer. Though we lost the game, the coach and teammates livened up to watch the shot. The truth is that the shot was the first and last shot I made. The experience from the club activity is one page of my wonderful youthful memoirs. I thank my coach's consideration to give me the chance to join the club even though I didn't understand English. Would it be possible to have an experience such as mine in the club activities in Japan?