| History | Organization | Members | Games, Practices and Activities |
Donkeys Rugby Football Club was established in 1972. At first, Mr. Hattori, who was one of the alumni of the Dokkyo University American
Football Team and the founder of the Donkeys, wanted to make an American Football Club. However, as it was considered to be one of the most expensive sports and not so popular
back in 70's, he gave up his dream and chose the rugby, instead, which on the contrary,
was less expensive and was much more popular than that of American Football.
Since then, Donkeys Rugby Football Club has
been actively involved with local leagues
and Club Tournaments.
Under the Tokyo Rugby Football Club Association, Donkeys play in the 3rd
division of the association.
Donkeys Rugby Football Club is non-profit organization which is governed by its own club members. Team leaders are selected each year by the club members. Here are this year’s leaders.
| Leaders | |||
| Staff | Field | ||
| Chairman | Kitai | Captain | Steve |
| Coordinator | Okuno | Forward Leader | Yamada |
| Vice Coordinator | Watanabe | Forward Leader | Hiyoshi |
| Vice Coordinator | Suzuki | Backs Leader | Takagi |
| Vice Coordinator | Hata | Backs Leader | Yabata |
| Vice Coordinator | Anzai | ||
| Vice Coordinator | Goto | ||
| Vice Coordinator | Mori | ||
| Accountant & Vice Coordinator |
Otaki | ||
| Public Relations & Interpreter |
Fukui | ||
People from the various occupations, ages, and nationalities gather every
Sunday and enjoy playing rugby. Currently roughly 40 members are actively
participating the practices and games.
Most of the members have prior experiences
of playing rugby before joining the Donkeys.
However, this does not mean that members
without any experience cannot join the team.
In fact, there are some members without any
prior experience and now playing the games
with experienced. So, everybody gets a fair
chance in the Donkeys.
The average age of the club members is over 30. Most of the forward players are over 30 and most of the backs players are in the 20s. The oldest is at the age of 52 and youngest is 21 as of Aug. 15, 2004.
As the globalization progresses in every sector of the community, Donkeys
are not the exception. Since 2000, several foreigners have joined Donkeys.
They enjoy the Donkeys rugby as well as the socialization on and off the
field. And they became part of the team regardless of the language barrier.
For further details, please send the email to Coordinator Okuno. He
will tell you more about our team. Here is the address.
donkeysinfo2005@hotmail.co.jp
The main events are; Sunday League, Tokyo
Club Tournament, Edogawa League, Edogawa
Sevens and Kanto Club Team Games. We play
approximately twenty games a year. (See below
for more details.)
One of the biggest events is the Tokyo Club
Team Tournament, which is held in the late
spring and early summer every year. We currently
belong to the 2nd division, but we can move
up or down between the divisions depending
on how well (bad) we perform in that tournament.
It is critical for our team not only to remain
in the same division but also to move up
to the next level of competition.
So, we work very hard at each practice. Everyone
strives for improving his personal skills
as well as the team skills during the practices.
After the practices and games, we discuss
the day's performance at the nearest restaurant.
We especially enjoy this part of the activity!
After all it is nothing like the cold beer
after the hard work.
Everyone in our team loves playing rugby
and being a member of the Donkeys.
* We practice at Koiwa and play games at
Nishi-Kasai, Edogawa Field and other areas.
And we practice or play games on every Sunday
now until the middle of December.