Japanese women's soccer players make their way to Gunnison

For the last three years, women’s soccer players from the Japanese Bridge Women’s Soccer program have come to Gunnison for a week in early spring to scrimmage the Western Colorado University women’s team and help create a bridge between cultures. 

Last week, the players made their way from Japan, stopping in Denver to scrimmage some of the college teams in the area, and then headed to Gunnison for the main event of their trip.

Kanae Haneishi, a professor at Western, has been assisting in the bridge of these players since 2003, welcoming them wherever she is teaching.

This year, the women played against the Gunnison high school boy’s team while in the valley. Because of the diminishing value of the yen, it’s becoming increasingly more expensive to travel from Japan, so only five players were able to attend, making the game more of a fun scrimmage. 

The women also made a few appearances at the Gunnison elementary school. 

They went into individual classroom rooms and taught the kids all about Japanese culture. The players taught them origami, kendama, how to write their names in Japanese and even showed them a traditional Japanese dance. 

The game against the Western girls was a little more exciting. The women were able to show off their skills and play with Western midfielder Natsuki Murakami, who was a Bridge player herself. Murakami is one of two players to attend Western from the Bridge program.

After the game, the players bonded over a few slices of pizza, sharing their interests and connecting. The Japanese players also showed the Western players their traditional dance.

“It’s a great cultural exchange,” said Haneishi, mentioning the fact that it was many of the Japanese player’s first time in the United States, or even outside of Japan.  

The trip and the program, however, are about more than just friendly competition. 

“It’s a bigger picture than just coming to play soccer, we want them to see the world outside of Japan,” said Haneishi. “In Japan there are not many female leaders in general. We wanted the players to see women leaders.” 

Haneishi connected the players with Western Provost Jessica Young, and other female leaders around Gunnison to show the players what they are capable of as women, something they’re not always taught. 

During her three years in Gunnison, Haneishi has changed things. She came in and began creating more spaces for women and girls in soccer. She is currently spearheading the campaign for a high school girl’s soccer team at GHS so that players who can’t commute to Crested Butte have the opportunity to play soccer. She says the program, like the Bridge program, is simply an attempt to empower girls beyond what they think they’re capable of, and give them an outlet in sports.