抄録

　かつて,日本選手権7連覇の栄光に輝いた新日鐵釜石ラグビー部は,2001年4月,地域密着型をめざしたグラブチーム「釜石シーウェイブスRFC」として生まれ変わった.クラブ運営上の課題を抱えつつも,「行政」「地元企業」「市民」によるサポートの小さな「芽」は萌え,その環が少しずつ広がりつつある.釜石にとって,今も昔も「ラグビー」は地域の「希望」であることに違いはないようだ.「新日鐵釜石」時代には,ある種の「あこがれ」や「誇り」が「希望」の源泉であったが,クラブ化後も,釜石シーウェイブスRFCが,より現実的な「実感」に基づいた「希望」を地域にもたらすようになったからである.

abstract

Shin-Nittetsu Kamaishi, a renowned rugby team of Nippon Steel Kamaishi Works, after the seven consecutive, legendary victories in the National championship, was reincarnated as a community-based club team, Kamaishi Seawaves RFC, in April of 2001. This club team is still faced with many difficulties; however, local governments, companies and citizens have begun to give this team supports and assistances, the degree of which is surely increasing. For people living in the City of Kamaishi, the rugby seems to have been a local "hope" in the past and present. In the days when the corporate team had a high presence, "hope" came from a kind of "yearning" for that celebrated team or "pride" of living in Kamaishi, a birthplace of that well-known team. However, the communitybased club team has come to provide residents of this town with a different kind of "hope," one which is based on more "actual" feelings.