American and Japanese student-athletes face off in a friendly basketball tournament at Camp Zama, Japan, March 8, 2025. (Juan King/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP ZAMA, Japan — U.S. Army Japan’s headquarters recently hosted its own version of March Madness as American and Japanese junior high school players faced off for the first time on this base just outside Tokyo.
Approximately 70 students from Zama Middle High School and nearby Sagamihara Municipal Soubudai and Zama Municipal Nishi met Saturday for nearly five hours of basketball at the Camp Zama Youth Center.
“What I am hoping for is just for the kids to have a lot of fun,” youth sports director Brandon Bergeron told Stars and Stripes before the games began. “I know our boys are really excited about playing a team that might be a little bit better than some of the other base teams, so they are looking forward to challenging themselves.”
The tournament featured six teams of 13- to 15-year-old boys — three American and three Japanese — competing in a round-robin format. The American school and one of the Japanese schools also fielded one girls’ team, which played later in the day.
The Zama teams were made up of students from the youth sports basketball program and coached by the school’s junior varsity basketball coach, Michael King. The Japanese schools brought their respective basketball teams.
American and Japanese student-athletes face off in a friendly basketball tournament at Camp Zama, Japan, March 8, 2025. (Juan King/Stars and Stripes)
American and Japanese student-athletes face off in a friendly basketball tournament at Camp Zama, Japan, March 8, 2025. (Juan King/Stars and Stripes)
“We got a couple of really good teams this year, so for some of our other teams maybe whose skill level is not as high, we are really expecting them to challenge themselves and have a good time,” Bergeron said.
While the American teams had a size and skill advantage, the disciplined Japanese squads put up strong competition. But the Zama students came out on top in end.
“I had so much fun, but there was a physical and height difference I felt made it very hard to play,” Soa Tobo, of Soubudai, told Stars and Stripes through a translator. “It was so much different than the kids we normally play with, but it was a great experience.”
Airi Smith, an eighth-grader at Zama, echoed that sentiment.
“It was fun and a good experience,” said Smith, who plays both guard and forward.
The tournament may be back for another season
“We are looking forward to inviting the junior high schools back again next year,” Zama spokesman Kenji Toyomura told Stars and Stripes in an email Wednesday.
Bergeron said the goal of the youth sports program is to encourage participation and fun, and joint events with the local community help support that mission.
“We are really happy that we are able to do this — it is a unique opportunity at this location,” he said, as players dribbled basketballs behind him. “Some of these kids are never going to play internationally, professionally or anything like that, so this will be the closest thing. We hope that our local neighbors really see that, hey, it is a bunch of kids and their families having fun.”
