A team of Iowa high school baseball players is headed to Japan to play a series of games in Iowa’s sister state of Yamanashi. Adam Noethe is one of two players on the squad from class 2A state champion Dyersville Beckman. “We play three games in three days and last three days we just have some time to see the sights,” Noethe says.
His Beckman teammate Joey Lehmann is looking forward to the experience. “It doesn’t seem real,” he says.
A team from Yamanashi played a series of games in Iowa last August, including a game in Cedar Rapids. Earlier this year, trip directors contacted high school coaches in Iowa and asked for nominations.
The Iowans will leave Japan on August 16th and head in the opposite direction. They’ll fly from Tokyo to Newark, N.J., and then to Des Moines. The players only cost was to pay for their own plane tickets. They participated in fundraising to cover all other costs.
The head coach is Denny Barton of Urbandale High School.
By Jon Swisher, KMCH, Manchester