College baseball’s’emerging powerhouse’ Korea-Japan Talents first arrived in the 2023 season KUSF (Korea University Sports Council) U-League Wangjungwangjeon.
Hanil Presbyterian University defeated Wonkwang University 8-1 in the Group D match held at Wolmyeong Baseball Stadium in Gunsan on the 10th, and secured 1st place in the group regardless of the results of the remaining 4 matches by posting a 7th win (1 draw). With the participation of 47 universities across the country, the U-League, which kicked off on the 6th of last month at four stadiums across the country, will feature the top 6 teams in each group, a total of 24 teams, in September. Lee Seon-woo (35), head coach of Hanil High School, who confirmed his entry into the King of Kings with overwhelming results, said, “As we prepare for each season, I tell the players that if the main characters, the 4th graders, do well, they will get good grades, but this time, as expected, the 4th graders led the atmosphere well.” and turned the ball
Hanil High School is a strong team that has taken the top spot in college baseball at a terrifying pace since its re-foundation in 2019. In 2020, he won the U-League Wangjungwangjeon, and last year also reached the semifinals twice in the U-League먹튀검증 and the National College Baseball Championship. In particular, it became a hot topic as a team that defeated prominent professional players in the entertainment program ‘Strongest Baseball’, which aired in January. Although they were retired players, they showed teamwork and concentration that was uncharacteristic of an amateur team against seniors who had properly rebuilt, and embarrassed coach Seong-geun Kim.
Hanil Presbyterian University is considered a ‘team-like team’ in the crisis of college baseball. The driving force behind the transformation in a short period of time is the leadership of director Lee Seon-woo and the support of schools and parents. At the beginning of the re-foundation, coach Lee worked hard to increase the size of the team, and now it is maintaining the number of 50 players, which is the largest among college teams. The combination of sports and studies, which is the biggest challenge in college baseball, is being carried out more efficiently than other teams. Director Lee introduced, “We don’t have a playground either, but we tend to be considerate so that students can listen to the class while they are taking classes and focus only on training during training.”
In 2019, at the age of 32, the youngest, coach Lee, who led the team to win the King of Kings match a year and a half after taking the baton, has emphasized the importance of training so far. “Our team has a lot of night training. You may not like it from the outside, but as a result, it seems that the secret to achieving steady results so far without relying on one or two outstanding players is the secret.”
As the players developed the habit of winning, the ability to prepare themselves and solve the game further improved, and the team color of ‘working hard and not losing’ was established.
Thanks to this, even in the professional baseball rookie draft, where college baseball was pushed to the back burner, Hanil High School has consistently produced nominated players. Director Lee said, “There are many stories that KBO and professional teams should be interested in college baseball, but before that, I think college baseball needs to make efforts to develop its own self-sustaining power.” also revealed