A handball team of strawberry growers have a debut game on March 27 in Itoshima-shi, Fukuoka prefecture in Kyushu Island. All of ten members consisting of the team, “Fresa Fukuoka,” based at Itoshima, are also engaged in strawberry growing. They have moved to Itoshima from other cities mostly out of Fukuoka prefecture.
The handball team, Fresa Fukuoka, seeks membership in the Japan Handball League, a top-level national handball league in the country, as early as possible. Players of Fresa Fukuoka have common dreams not only of joining the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020, but also of becoming independent farmers of producing strawberry and other crops in the near future.
A tryout of Fresa Fukuoka was held in the middle of January. The team owner employed only young men who demonstrated strong capabilities to play handball as well as determination to work on agricultural production.
All the players of Fresa Fukuoka are now employed as trainee farmers by a farmer in Itoshima-shi. After working mainly on strawberry farms during the daytime, they apply themselves to training at a gymnasium in the city every evening.
The team was named with a Spanish ward “Fresa” meaning a strawberry. People of Fresa Fukuoka has put for its name players’ determination to commit their lives to both handball playing and strawberry growing.
(March 13, 2016)