“It’s fun to play baseball with my sisters!”안전놀이터
The 2023 Women’s Baseball Tournament held at Hwaseong Dream Park Stadium for two days from the 18th to the 19th. When asked about his feelings on participating in the national team selection event, the youngest participant, Han Si-yul (15), born in 2008, replied, “It’s fun to be with my sisters for the first time after playing baseball with boys.”
Han Si-yul, a ‘special talent’ who is also eyeing the national team coach Yang Sang-moon, plans to join the Little Baseball Team in Cheonan-dongnam-gu. But she is here. She only has 1 year to play. This is because when a girl becomes a high school student, she has to leave the little baseball team. It wasn’t long before this system was created.
This so-called ‘Kim Ra-gyeong Special Act’ (extending the age limit for little baseball from the 1st grade of middle school to the 3rd grade for female players) limited the period of belonging to the little baseball team to female students who cannot join the junior high school baseball team after graduating from little baseball. It is a system that can be extended up to 3 years. When Kim Ra-kyung (23, Seoul National University), who is writing the first record in women’s baseball, was in the little baseball team, she was a sophomore in middle school and the team to go to was lost.
Han Si-yul has a place to live for a year, but Yang Seo-jin (16), who is going up to her first year of high school this year, has no place to go. He belongs to the little baseball team in Sejong City and has proven his excellent skills not to be left behind by male students of his age by going through the standing army of the little baseball national team, but from now on he is worried. Seo-jin Yang’s mother said, “When Seo-jin had no place to exercise while preparing for this selection match, he was given consideration by the Little Baseball coach to come here and prepare.”
Yang Seo-jin plans to enter a general high school. Yang Seo-jin, who is developing her dream of becoming the first professional female baseball player in Korea, needs an environment where she can continue to play baseball, but it is not easy in Korea. The option that her Yang Seo-jin has is to join a baseball club, a society of diverse ages, rather than an elite baseball club with her peers.
Son Ga-eun (17), who became a sophomore in high school, enjoyed the honor of being selected for the first time as a national representative last year. A native of Little Baseball Team in Hwaseong City, he left Little Baseball when he became a high school student and joined the ‘Dangjin Junior Baseball Team’, the only women’s baseball junior team in Korea. There, she blossomed her skills by playing baseball with her older sister and younger brothers her age. However, at the end of last year, when ‘Dangjin Junior’ was disbanded for various reasons such as budget, Son Ga-eun moved the team to a women’s baseball club.
Among the current ‘Dangjin Junior’ players, some players changed their sport to softball with an unemployment team, and some moved their enemies to social clubs. The rest of the players are training individually without a team.
When Korea’s only women’s baseball junior baseball team was disbanded, the Korean Women’s Baseball Federation (WBAK) rushed out. The federation is busy preparing to establish a ‘Junior Women’s Baseball Team’ targeting student athletes from the 6th grade of elementary school to the 3rd grade of high school. We started accepting player applications from the 17th and are always recruiting until the fill is filled. A talented leader who will lead the junior baseball team is also accepting applications.
WBAK President Hwang Jeong-hee expressed his intention to fully support the junior baseball team. Chairman Hwang said, “For prospects to grow, it is necessary to systematically train for two hours once a week with other players of their age, not hobby baseball, in a club, but such an environment has not been prepared.” It will be systematically operated under the support of the federation. I would like to ask for a lot of support and interest from girls who are new to baseball and girls who want to continue playing baseball with their peers.”