Dartmouth University running back Noah Roper talks football with players from Yokota High School during a drill session at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Jan. 19, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Football players from Ivy League schools ran drills and answered questions during a recent visit to the high school at this airlift hub in western Tokyo.
The Ivy League team stopped by Yokota High on Friday ahead of the Dream Japan Bowl at the National Stadium in Tokyo.
The Ivies fell, 10-5, to a team from the Japan National Football Association looking to square its 24-20 loss in the Dream Bowl last year.
But first the collegiate Americans spent two hours Friday on coaching and Q&A with the Yokota Panthers.
“It’s a great opportunity for my football players to learn about playing at the next level,” Yokota head coach Michael Woodworth told Stars and Stripes during the event. “I love some of the things they said about how academics is important and that studying and having good grades is just as important as playing football.”
The Yokota High School Panthers learn football lessons from Ivy League players on their field at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Jan. 19, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
Ivy League football players take part in a Q&A session with members of the Yokota High School Panthers at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Jan. 19, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
Ivy League football players take part in a Q&A session with members of the Yokota High School Panthers at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Jan. 19, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
The Ivy League schools are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Yale University. The all-star squad held clinics at Japanese schools in addition to its stop at Yokota, according to IvyLeague.com.
The players — the roster showed 100 — was led by Brown head coach James Perry. Many of the Americans were making their first visit to Japan.
“This trip has just been mind-blowing,” Andrew Pruske, a center guard offensive lineman for Columbia, said Friday. “I never thought that I would be coming over to Japan and practicing football like in the U.S. or coming to a military base to talk to students.”
The team arrived Jan. 14 and, in addition to sightseeing, visited with alumni, socialized with their Japanese opponents and met Japanese students.
“We’ve done a ton of things since we’ve been here,” Pruske said. “We went to the U.S. embassy earlier in the week and we visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Brown University linebacker Ethan Royer drills with a member of the Yokota High School Panthers at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Jan. 19, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
Ivy League football players take part in a Q&A session with members of the Yokota High School Panthers at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Jan. 19, 2024. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
One goal of the visit was to promote American football in Japan, Pruske said.
“American football is only really big in the U.S., so hearing that they want to make it bigger here, too, was really cool to hear,” he said.
The relationship between the Ivy League and Japan stretches back to 1989, when the Ivy League team played a Japanese team.
“With over 400 teams nationally in the youth, college and semi-pro levels, Japan is considered the highest level of football outside of North America,” according to the Harvard Club of Japan.
Sunday’s Dream Japan Bowl game was the 10th between the Japanese and Ivy League teams and the first win for the Japanese.
