"The official game on weekday evenings. I'm pretty tired." The "uncomfortable feeling" I felt as a guardian of club activities in the United States.

Series "Sports From USA" -American sports club with many official games, why

"Sports From USA" serialized by Teruyoko Taniguchi, a sports journalist in the United States, delivered by "THE ANSWER". Introducing the sports culture unique to the United States and exploring new perspectives in thinking about the future of Japanese sports. The theme this time is "Club activities with many official games".

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One of the most popular sports nonfiction books in the United States is "Friday Night Lights."

It is a work depicting the American high school American football club and the people surrounding it. I think it has such a title because the high school American football club game is held on Friday night.

Dusk from early autumn to late autumn. The feeling of openness on Friday night fills the high school grounds. The players play under the ground where the lights are shining. It is also a sunny stage for the brass band club and cheerleader club. Local people, parents, and school friends rush. The match ends at 9 and 10 pm. Many high school students have already obtained a driver's license, and they drive their own night roads to get home.

(Official games of the high school athletic club often use school facilities. In other words, many high schools have a ground where they can play games. It is a better environment than Japan. Public high school sports Many of the facilities are open to local residents during times when high school students are not using them. Taxes are due to the awareness that public school grounds are more local than school grounds. I think it is possible to create a ground with nighter lighting)

At first, I felt uncomfortable playing games on weekday nights, high school students playing games late at night, and getting home late. But Americans seem to be accustomed to the schedule of high school American football on Friday night, college football on Saturday, and professional on Sunday.

I feel that the US sports club has a large number of official games. Moreover, there are many games from the evening on weekdays. As far as the athletic club is concerned, we rarely play games on Sundays (in youth sports outside of school, there are practice and games even on Sundays). There may also be religious influences with Sunday as the Sabbath. When I interviewed the organization that oversees the high school athletic club in California, it was said that there would be no activity on Sunday.

To give you an example that is familiar to me, the public high school soccer club to which my second son belongs often played games twice a week on weekday evenings. The American football club usually plays on Fridays, but the soccer club often plays on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The same goes for the public high school ice hockey club, which plays in the winter, playing games on weekday nights (Wednesday at home) and Saturdays, and playing nearly 30 games in four months of activity. Compared to the soccer club, there were games far away, and about four games left school early. The pace is that practice is 3-4 times a week and games are about twice a week.