KAWASAKI, Japan (The Japan News) ― An 83-year-old student and member of the baseball team at Takatsu High School pledged to do her best at a Kanagawa prefectural rubber-ball baseball tournament for part-time and correspondence high school students on Sunday.

Chie Kaminakabeppu, a fourth-year student of the night course at the high school, will be on the bench for the finals of the prefectural tournament in Sagamihara of the prefecture as a messenger wearing a uniform with the No. 12.

“I’ll do my best,” said Kaminakabeppu of Miyamae Ward, Kawasaki. “There’s no use staying home. I’d like to give everything my best shot.”

Her favorite phrase is “remaining active for my entire life.”

Kaminakabeppu was born in Soo, Kagoshima Prefecture, and graduated from a local primary school.

When she was a primary school student, Japan was in the middle of World War II. She was too busy to have enough time for studying because students had to practice working in bucket brigades to prepare for U.S. bombings, train with naginata pole swords and help with farming, she said.

She now has two children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

When Kaminakabeppu was 76, she wanted to study English. A Miyamae Ward Office official recommended she take a night course at Nishi-Nakahara Middle School in Kawasaki. She studied at the school for three years.

As she wanted to study more, she enrolled in a night course at Takatsu High School in April 2010. She never fails to review what she studied.

“It’s hard for me to understand (what is taught) as quickly as young people. I review what is taught because I want to feel I learned something,” she said.

Before she joined the rubber-ball baseball team, she often brought homemade bread and snacks for members of the team.

Her homeroom teacher, Katsumi Nakajima, 45, is also the team’s coach. He recruited her to the team last autumn.

Team members love Kaminakabeppu and call her Chie-san because she often inspires the players. The team practices for an hour from 9 p.m.

She mainly helps by collecting stray balls, but she sometimes plays catch and fields, wearing a glove given to her by a teammate.

She attends practice three times a week and returns home at about 11 p.m.

She often sits up late reviewing what she learned in class, and goes to bed after midnight, getting up at about 8 a.m. every morning.

“I feel happy every day,” she said.

On May 19, she participated in an official baseball tournament for the first time.

As her team was leading 11-1 in the fourth inning, Nakajima put her in left field in the fifth inning.

Although no balls were hit to her, Kaminakabeppu was thrilled. “My heart was pounding and I felt like it could take three years off my life,” she said.

“She’s a hard worker. She’s always herself and makes other students feel positive,” Nakajima said.

If the team wins the game Sunday, it can go to the National Part-time/Correspondence High School Rubber Baseball Tournament.

“I’ve been watching my teammates practice so hard. I’ll support them with all my power,” she said.