High Flying Birds
TAC Eagles win their first Minato-ku championship as Club kids build skills for on and off the court.
With the TAC Eagles trailing and only seconds remaining, Siwon Lee sends the basketball soaring. His teammates watch with bated breath and erupt in joy as the net swooshes.
The 10-year-old Member’s study of his idol, Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, paid off big time as his last-second basket tied a semifinal game in February’s Minato Ward Elementary School Basketball Tournament. The goal sent the battle into overtime, where the Eagles prevailed 26–25 over Azabu MBC. They went on to defeat the Nanzan Stars 24–16 in the final for the B1 squad’s first tournament title since its founding in 2012.
“It felt really good, because the day before the semifinal I went to a ski resort and an onsen and I was thinking about the game all the time,” says Siwon, a student at the American School in Japan (ASIJ). “I was scared because we lost against Azabu MBC a few times.”
After scoring 13 points and getting three rebounds, teammate Rintaro Kim was named MVP of the championship game, another first for the Club. He recalls that key moment in the semifinal when things didn’t look good for the Eagles.
“I was like, ‘We’re gonna lose,’” admits 9-year-old Rintaro. “But Siwon said, ‘I’m gonna hit the fadeaway shot.’ And then he made it, and we went to overtime. We managed to win by one point. That was a hard win for us.”
Originally from South Korea, Siwon has been living in Tokyo for six years. In February 2023, he decided to join the Eagles because his friends told him they play basketball and he wanted to give it a try. It was a good move in more ways than one.
“I was able to get better at a new sport so I can also get better at school,” Siwon says. “It helps with some subjects, like phys ed, because you’re getting more exercise and you’re moving your body.”
The TAC Eagles B1 team
Rintaro, a student at the British School in Tokyo, admires Los Angeles Lakers legends LeBron James and the late Kobe Bryant. He also began playing basketball in February 2023 after seeing an ad for Rakuten’s NBA broadcasts.
“I was really nervous when I first joined since it was my first year on the team,” he reveals. “But it makes me really happy playing with the team, especially in the Minato-ku tournament, which is the biggest tournament [for us]. Lots of people are watching, and that makes me feel like the NBA players I first saw in the Rakuten advertisement.”
About 20 boys and girls in grades two through four make up the TAC Eagles B1 team, which is led by former professional basketball player Dan Weiss. Coach Vitalii Goncharenko, another former pro in Europe, leads the fifth and sixth graders on the A1 team, which finished a respectable third.
“Our victory couldn’t have happened without the entire team working together and challenging each other at practice,” says Weiss. “The support of the parents was also key to allowing coaches to focus on strategy and player management.”
The Eagles were up against seven other teams in the tournament and were at a disadvantage because they only practice twice a week for 90 minutes beginning in September. Getting to the Club and focusing on basketball after a full day of school was a big challenge for the players, but Weiss says they benefitted from the direction of fellow coach Goncharenko and assistant coach Shosuke Yokoyama. Practices were broken down into warm-ups and fundamentals, with 12 of 20 kids eventually chosen for the tournament team.
“We wanted to find a balance between having fun, working hard and learning basketball,” says Weiss, who has coached the team since its first tournament in 2013. “We want them to be able to focus beyond the next 30 minutes, and that’s challenging in this era of instant gratification.”
Playing with the Eagles could be a stepping-stone to bigger things in sports. Former team captain Shou Murakami-Moses plays for ASIJ’s Mustangs football team and made the all-Japan under-15 team.
Siwon is looking forward to resuming basketball practice in April and says he would like to play in the NBA one day. Rintaro is also shooting for the stars. He aims to play basketball in high school and university, and maybe one day try out for the B.League, Japan’s professional basketball association.
“My goal for next season is to be braver and take the shots when I have them,” Rintaro says. “It doesn’t matter if you miss some, you have to try.”
Words: Tim Hornyak
Top Image of Coach Dan Weiss with (l–r) Rintaro Kim and Siwon Lee: Yuuki Ide
