International Sports Ambassadors (ISA) was created to give students the opportunity to travel overseas to compete in and watch sports with international teams.  ISA is a subsidiary of California Athletics.  In August of 2009, ISA will be taking a group of high school baseball players to San Diego and Japan for the baseball experience of a lifetime!  We will play games against Japanese high school teams, visit U.S. military bases in Japan for a baseball with military personnel, and tour Japan.  Following is a brief description of the different elements of the trip for those interested in going.  The trip is a tour designed to give American high school players an opportunity to tour the country of Japan, and to play and watch baseball in Japan. 

San Diego Practices & Tours

While in San Diego the first 3 days of the tour players will practice, fit uniforms, and prepare for the baseball playing portion of the trip to Japan.  They will also have the opportunity to see 3 colleges as we will practice at 3 different colleges in San Diego and tour the colleges.  Players will also have some great tours in San Diego seeing the historic ships at the Embarcadero, visiting the San Diego Zoo, and having a day on the beach at either Mission Beach or Mission Bay with Jet Skis.  Players will be staying in a hotel in the airport area, central to the sight seeing, practice areas, and close to San Diego Harbor.  This will be a great time for players and accompanying family members to get to know each other, form as a team, and enjoy some great activities in San Diego!

Games against Japanese High School Teams

We will play games against 3-4 Japanese high school teams at their home fields in Japan.  These games will be against their team of the same age and grade level as our team.  We will play games generally at 11:00 AM, leaving time in the morning for transportation to the site, and time after the game for social time and touring.  These games will be played as "exhibition games".  That means that we will play our best baseball to win games, but the more over-riding concern is displaying good sportsmanship - being a good "Ambassador" of American baseball and our country.  We will play all players as equal time as possible so that all players gain the experience and enjoyment of playing in Japan.  The games in Japan will all be played by Japanese rules meaning 9 innings!  We will take enough players to have approximately 2 lineups, so each lineup will play half of each game.  We will also look for enough pitchers to rotate pitchers frequently. 

"USO Days" at U.S. Military bases

We will start the tour by staying at a U.S. Military base in the Tokyo area.  In the morning of each of these days we will do a clinic for the younger children on the base as well as local Japanese children, giving them the opportunity to learn skills from the players and coaches, and to enjoy a fun morning of interaction with the ISA players.  After lunch and some free time, later in the afternoon, the team will play a game against a team of junior enlisted personnel from the base.  We will follow the game with a social time with the military players and other members of the armed forces.  We will also stay on the U.S. military base for several nights of the tour.

Touring Japan

We tour Japan after games on game days, and we will have a day in between each game day for more sight seeing and travel.  We will travel by bus and by rail while in Japan so you will see many aspects of Japanese culture while traveling.  We may have a Japan Rail pass, giving us unlimited access to the most sophisticated train system in the world!  We will ride the Shinkansan - "Bullet Train" from city to city, and on tour days, groups may take the "bullet train" to another city to sight see.  See the schedule below for suggested sites to see on the tour.

Japanese High School National Championship Game

Japan has the strongest high school baseball system of any country outside of the US.  In Japan, high school baseball players play baseball through the entire school year, with the goal of winning the championship in their prefecture (like our states), and progressing to the National High School Championship tournament.  Each summer, 50 teams progress to the national playoffs, culminating in the national high school championship game played in Koshien (just west of Osaka) in front of a sell out crowd of over 50,000 spectators.  It is one of the major sporting events in the entire country each year.  On the final day of the tour, the entire group will be attending the National High School Championship game in Koshien, Japan on August 25!  It will be a spectacular opportunity to witness one of the major baseball events in the baseball world!  It will also  be a great cultural experience.

Japanese Professional Games

We will try to plan to attend one or two professional games while in Japan.  This will be greatly dependent on the Japanese professional schedule fitting into the tour schedule, so it is not published yet.  Once the schedule is published in Japan, we will plan these games into the tour schedule.

Schedule

Following is the proposed schedule for the trip.  This could change slightly, but this schedule will give you the concept of the sites we will see, the games we will play, and the bases we will visit.

Costs

The cost of the tour will be finalized this spring as airline costs are determined.  The tour cost will include airline transportation from San Diego to Japan and back to Los Angeles or San Francisco, lodging while in San Diego and Japan, scheduled tours and attractions while in San Diego, uniforms, team clothing and apparel that will be worn while traveling, a DVD and photo book of the trip, a 14 day Japan Rail pass while in Japan (for unlimited bullet train and local train riding while in Japan), some group transportation to group events in Japan, and some group costs such as Japanese cell phones for group communications. 

Some costs will be left to each traveler, giving players and accompanying families more freedom to choose which attractions they wish to see as well as choosing what and how much food they wish to purchase.  There will be some group meals, but many will be at a selected location with everyone paying their own bill.  This will help give more freedom of choice to everyone traveling.

Application/Tryouts

If your are interested in trying out for and interviewing for this tour, please contact ISA immediately for an application form and detailed flyer with the estimated costs and requirements.  Tryouts and interviews will be held in San Diego in the spring.  For those unable to travel to San Diego for tryouts and interviews, we will make other arrangements.