JPN: Japanese Volleyball Federation inaugurates Men’s and Women’s head coach

Nakagaichi (left) & Nakada (right)

Yuichi Nakagaichi was appointed as the new head coach of Japanese Men’s Volleyball National Team instead of Nambu Masashi.

Nakagaichi’s biography:

• As a player, or to be more precise as the setter, Nakagaichi has been competing for Japan from 1990-1998, being announced MVP in his debut season in V-League (Japanese Championship). Later, he became Japan’s captain and led his national team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games (6th place) and 1998 FIVB World Championship (16th place).
• As a coach, Nakagaichi won V-League with Sakai Blazers in 2005 and was engaged in senior Japanese NT in last 12 years (firstly in U20 and then in U23 team) mostly as the specialist for serving. As he said at the inaugural press conference, that’s exactly what he’s going to try to improve with the players at the start of his mandate.

As for Japanese Women’s Volleyball National Team, Kumi Nakada replaced Masayoshi Manabe. Unlike the case of Nakagaichi, this was known earlier.

Nakada’s biography:

• At the age of 15, Nakada became the youngest player ever to make her debut for Japanese Women’s NT (in 1980) and played for it until 1993. As a player, she won a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (while still attending high school). In addition, Nakada grabbed Best Setter award at the 1989 FIVB World Cup in.
• From 2008, she served as an assistant coach in Italy. She became the first coach of Hisamitsu Springs in 2012 and remained at that position until now. With this Japanese club, Nakada took V-League three times as well as Emperor’s Cup four times.

As it was said at the press conference of the Japanese Volleyball Federation, the main goal for both Nakagaichi and Nakada is the medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

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