{"id":8683,"date":"2021-08-10T16:08:08","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T20:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=8683"},"modified":"2021-08-12T10:56:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T14:56:51","slug":"66-minutes-and-a-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2021\/08\/10\/66-minutes-and-a-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"66 Minutes and A Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eagles basketball walk-on Eito Yuminami joins the pros in Japan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On paper, Eito Yuminami doesn\u2019t scream \u201cpro basketball player.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s 5\u20196\u201d and 160 lbs. In his three-year career as a walk-on at Georgia Southern, he played 22 games \u2014 a total of 66 minutes \u2014 and scored 34 points. He\u2019ll freely admit to you that he can\u2019t jump or shoot as well as some of his former teammates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in his career with the Eagles, Yuminami became a fan favorite. His quickness and creativity made for electric performances on the court. More than that, however, he became an indispensable leader on the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEito is the ultimate team player,\u201d said Eagles head coach Brian Burg. \u201cHe’s extremely unselfish. He’s a great teammate, and that’s probably one of his greatest attributes, his ability to connect with other players. He puts the program before himself. He has a bright future in basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, Yuminami begins a new chapter in his basketball career \u2014 as a professional player and coach with the Nagasaki Velca in Japan. It\u2019s the realization of a goal he\u2019s pursued since he was five years old, and one that brought him halfway around the world to attain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was five years old, me and my dad planned our goals,\u201d said Yuminami, a native of Chiba, Japan. \u201cWe made this checklist. And we put that we would go to the United States, become a state champ, go to Division 1 and make it to the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not every parent would take the dreams of their five year old as seriously as Shinichi and Wakako Yuminami did. Even fewer would move away from their family and friends in Japan to Mooresville, North Carolina, to make those dreams come true. Eito was only nine years old when his parents did just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were always looking for an opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cMy dad got a job and we just came here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yuminami didn\u2019t speak any English when his family arrived in the U.S. He struggled in his first year at J.V. Washam Elementary School, often just sitting alone and crying. It wasn\u2019t until he played his first pick-up game of basketball that he felt like he could truly belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBasketball\u2019s not just a sport to me,\u201d Yuminami said in a 2018 interview with the Mooresville Citizen<\/em>. \u201cBasketball\u2019s really helped me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In high school, Yuminami was a three-year starting point guard at Pine Lake Preparatory. By his senior year, he led a team that went 12-0 in league play and 19-8 overall. In 67 career games, he scored 679 points and a school-record 333 assists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point guard position also gave Yuminami a taste of his true passion \u2014 coaching. He had to set plays, shout cues to his teammates and take control of the game. At Georgia Southern, even when he was riding the bench, he was looking for ways to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEito is a student of the game,\u201d said Burg. \u201cHe’s in the film room, and he is constantly seeking out different types of instruction to learn the game from different perspectives. He has a bright future in coaching. He has a passion for the game, both on the court and off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Velca, Yuminami will coach in the youth development league. He says he\u2019s excited about the competition he\u2019ll face during the year, but he\u2019s even more excited to help kids with dreams just like his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m most excited about is how I\u2019ll get to share what I learned both in Japan and America with these kids, so they can use me as a resource and see if they want to go to the United States,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just excited. I get to share all this knowledge that I learned with all these little guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for his parents, they\u2019ll stay here in the U.S., but will come visit him in Japan every chance they get. The distance is a small price to pay to watch their son follow his dream. He says their faith in him has been a driving force in his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only thing I want for them is to become happy for me,\u201d he said. \u201cI just want them to say they\u2019re proud of me. When I got this pro contract, they were really excited. And, you know, that\u2019s what keeps me going to this day, to be honest.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On paper, Eito Yuminami doesn\u2019t scream \u201cpro basketball\u00a0player.\u201d He\u2019s 5\u20196\u201d and 160 lbs. In his three-year career as a walk-on at Georgia Southern, he played 22 games\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a total of 66 minutes\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and scored 34 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-8683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-summer-2021"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}