“I’m glad I was able to play with good players through the all-star game.”
Coach Chung Am-go Lee Young-bok was all smiles as he took charge of the high school national team at the inaugural High School vs. College All-Star Game at the Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on June 6. Regardless of the outcome of the game, he felt great satisfaction that such an all-star 안전놀이터 game was organized. In particular, Lee had been nominated to take charge of the youth national team this year, so it is inevitable that he was recommended by the professional scouting team. This is because he needs to have the best possible squad to win the World Youth Championship, which hasn’t happened since 2008.
So, rather than focusing on wins and losses, the team opted to play all of the selected players. We used all of our pitchers, including Lee Sang-joon (Gyeonggi Go), Bae Kang (Gwangju Il-Go), and Han Ji-yoon (Gyeonggi Sang-Go), who all wore the same catcher’s masks. Hitters were pinch-hit appropriately to ensure that everyone got at least two at-bats. If they had gone all out, the high school team would have won easily.
In particular, Coach Lee Young-bok praised the players he hadn’t seen in person, saying, “Hey, this is really good to see! The duo of Hwang Jun-seo and Yuk Sun-yeop from Jangchung, Daegu Sangwon, and Kim Taek-yeon from Incheon lived up to the coach’s expectations.
Coach Lee Young-bok, who brought the players together after the match, said, “It was an honor to be in the best place with the best players. I hope we can end this by shaking hands with each other,” he said. The team then headed back to Seoul to prepare for the second half of the Weekend League, the Cheongnyonggi Championships, and the upcoming World Championships.