A fledgling baseball coach from Burkina Faso in West Africa has big dreams for the sport in her home country after recently completing a course on mentoring young players in Hokkaido.
"One day, I will make a national baseball team in my country that will be strong enough to beat even Japan or the United States," said Zida Eugenie, 30.
Eugenie was invited to receive training for baseball coaching in Hokkaido by a Japanese organization based in the prefectural city of Furano in a bid to spread the sport in Burkina Faso.
A baseball fan since her school days, she has promoted the sport as a staff member of Burkina Faso's baseball federation and now hopes to nurture strong players.
Yuta Deai, founder and head of the Japanese group, which was set up in December 2008, said several players from the African nation had been invited to Japan each year, but Eugenie was the first to learn coaching.
Deai himself taught baseball under the Japan International Cooperation Agency's Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program in Burkina Faso for two years through 2010.
He said baseball was not a popular sport there, having only been introduced in the late 1990s.
But he added that it was vital for a coach to teach players proper technique, and then continue to assist them in their development.
Deai said he had asked a youth baseball team's coach in Toyako, Hokkaido, to train Eugenie.
Since Eugenie understood little Japanese, nonverbal communication was essential to the teaching process, he said.
As part of her three-month training from early July, Eugenie served as coach and an umpire in a youth game.
Before her departure, Eugenie said, "My three months here in Japan, where baseball is popular, were very exciting."