Noshiro Technical High School in Noshiro, Akia Prefecture, best known for its powerhouse boy's basketball team that has won national 58 titles, will undergo a name change in time for March next year because of integration and elimination of schools amid the declining birthrate.
The Akita prefectural assembly passed a bill Tuesday to revise the ordinance for the switch.
Noshiro Technical, which has 268 students, is scheduled to appear under that name for the final time at the December Winter Cup tournament.
Players, who were unable to get in enough practice in because of school's temporary closure amid the spread of the new coronavirus, will be seeking a championship for the first time in 13 years.
Noshiro Technical has won the title at the Inter-High School Championships 22 times.
Yuta Tabuse, who became the first Japanese national to appear in an NBA game, played at the school from 1996 to 1998, when it won three crowns: the Inter-High School Championships, the National Sports Festival and the Winter Cup (formerly known as the national high school basketball championship).
Sixty percent of 50-player roster are from outside the prefecture.
Noshiro Technical is set to merge with an agricultural high school for next fiscal year and be renamed Noshiro High School of Science and Technology.
About 9,000 graduates were among those who signed a petition calling for the continued use of the school's nationally known name, but the effort was unsuccessful.
"I'd like to close out the history of the Noshiro Technical name with a championship," said team captain Genki Nakayama, in his third and final year at the school.
The city of Noshiro, dubbed "basketball town," is home to numerous parks that have basketball courts. The players were able to practice on their own at these parks while the school was temporarily shut down.
"Because this is Noshiro, we were able to encourage each other and keep going even though there were no club activities," Nakayama said.
Noshiro Technical has been playing practice games in the prefecture's northern district and is on a winning streak thanks to its players being in outstanding physical condition.
Coach Shuji Ono said he wants his players to compete in the games and allow them to grow as they work toward the championships. "I want to pursue our signature style of 'up-tempo basketball' till the end," he said.
Kazuhiko Shimamoto, the first editor-in-chief of Gekkan Basketball, a monthly magazine produced by Nippon Bunka Publishing Co., said it is sad the symbolic representation of Akita Prefecture disappear.
"I want them to once again show off their steadｙ and never-say-die style of play."
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