High school basketball Winter Cup qualifiers begin September 19

Prefectural qualifiers for the national high school basketball championship, known as the Winter Cup, are scheduled to begin on September 19. The competition will take place at various prefectural gymnasiums, featuring 41 boys' teams and 33 girls' teams vying for a single spot in the national tournament held in Tokyo this December.

Key contenders include top-seeded Nobeoka Gakuen, which is aiming for its fourth consecutive title in the boys' division. Other notable teams include Miyazaki Kogyo for the boys and Kobayashi for the girls, both of whom secured runner-up positions in the summer prefectural championships.