About Us
We believe that, in this digital era, IT can be used to connect people, just as much as to help enhancing ‘craftsmanship’ (i.e., ‘shokunin’ // 職人) within the sports world, through professional skills, such as coaching and training. Through our training software and digital platforms presence, we hope to achieve greater connectivity from which the sports community can benefit from.
Mission
Our mission is to establish a "Cloud Campus for Sports" where we can share free or affordable educational resources. Likewise, we want to provide our members with a platform for building connections that can benefit their professional lives and create a network through which we support each other.
Vision
Through Sunbears, our vision is to connect sports spirit across the world and contribute to forming a more widely accessible environment for the sports community.
Meet The Contributors
Takahito Suzuki
Coach・Ice Hockey
Coach Suzuki is the current head coach of Toyo University Ice Hockey Club, coach of Bring Up Athletic Society, former professional ice hockey right winger, and the former head coach of the Japanese National Team. Previously, he played in the ECHL- Charlotte Checkers, Kokudo, Seibu, Nikko Ice Bucks, Japan Ice Hockey League, and Asia League.
Coach Suzuki has been constantly collaborating with the Sunbears team, and contributing to the ice hockey drill library, drill draw features development, as well as regular function testing with his professions and experiences.
Yutaka Saho
Trainer
Mr. Saho is the BOC Certified Athletic Trainer, the Executive Director of Sports Safety Japan, and the trainer of Bring Up Athletic Society. He is also the previous Head Athletic Trainer of the Japan National Men's Ice Hockey Team.
As one of the long-time chief contributors of Sunbears, Mr. Saho has been working with us for development of the EAP system, as well as team data management. He's also been constantly supporting us with his professional and selfless insights.
Tomohiro Usui
Trainer
Mr. Usui is the current strength and conditioning (S&C) coach of Waseda Club, Edogawa Basketball Club, Waseda University Rugby Football Club, Bring Up Athletic Society, and the assistant S&C coach of the HITO Communications Sunwolves rugby team.
With the profession and passion in sports science and technology, Mr. Usui joined Sunbears as the main contributor on development of team training stats/ sRPE development , which makes Sunbears a even more useable and handy for the professional sports teams.
Tomomi Iwahara
Coach・Ice Hockey
Former SEIBU Princess Rabbits ice hockey player and coach. She represented Japan at the IIHF Women's World Championship, the Asian Winter Games, and the 2018 Pyeong Chang Olympics. After retiring in March 2022, she is studying coaching and conducting research on ice hockey at the graduate school of the Nippon Sport Science University.
Ms. Iwahara has been collaborating with us on drill libraries and video documenting. Her passion, diligence, and dedication to not only Ice Hockey, but the sports education inspire us a lot along the way.
Yoshiyuki Sakai
Coach・Basketball
With more than 20 years of basketball coaching experience, coach Sakai is the current head coach of Kokugakuin Kugayama High School Basketball Club. With the team, he has participated in the Inter-High School Tournament eight times and the Winter Cup three times as a coach. His highest ranking is 8th place in the Winter Cup 2013. During his lead, many of the graduates have been active in the B-League, and contributing to the development of basketball in Japan.
Coach Sakai has been dedicated to the Sunbears basketball drill library creation along with his team.
Mike Sciarpelletti
Coach・Ice Hockey
Based in Langley, BC, Canada, coach Mike was the director of Strike Anywhere Powerskating. Coach Mike has been a powerskating and hockey skills instructor for over 18 years with students presently playing in the AJHL, BCHL, BCIHL, NCAA, WHL, ECHL, and AHL.
During his time playing for the Knights of Columbus in Edmonton, Alberta, Mike was taught by many elite level coaches including Edmonton Oilers powerskating coach Steve Serdachny.
It was our pleasure to be able to collaborate with coach Mike to create drill video series and visual contents. It indeed inspired us a lot to see another professional that has been dedicated in the sports education world with passion.
Rafael (Rafa) Merino Rodríguez
Coach・Futsal
Becoming a part of Sunbears co-creation in December 2022, Mr. Rafa, coach in Pescados Rubén Burela FS, is a futsal coach with a UEFA A Pro certificate from the RFEF. He has experience in coaching the men's and women's 1st division in Spain and England. Additionally, Mr. Rafa coordinates and schedules for a youth sports school.
Sam Ajoku
Player・Football
Joined the Sunbears team as the Co-creator and Ambassador in December 2022, Sam is a Sport Management graduate and sports enthusiast. Besides playing football, he’s also a short and middle distance runner.
Sam is drawn towards the impact of engaging in sports on human physical and mental health. Just as much, he’s fascinated by the psychology of the mind, understanding “why we do”, “what we do”, and the stories we tell ourselves. Sam’s fascination has opened him to the world of behavioral studies as he’s moving into the user research sector, where he can enjoy learning and challenging him with new experiences.
Kouta Nagayoshi
Trainer
Mr. Nagayoshi is a JSPO Certified Athletic Trainer and acupuncturist. He’s currently a Conditioning Coach of the JSC High Performance Support Project. Previously, he worked as Athletic Trainer for the Funabashi High School Soccer Team, Women's Pro Triathletes , JAL WINGS Japan Airlines Rugby Club, JAPAN RUGBY LEAGUEONE Hanazono Kintetsu Liners, etc. He’s also worked as a sports clinic staff member at the Oriental Medicine Clinical Laboratory affiliated with Tokyo Medical College, and as an instructor at Tokyo Resort & Sports College for more than 10 years.
Mr. Nagayoshi joined the Sunbears Co-creator team in December 2022. With his extensive experience and knowledge, he’s been supporting us in the production of injury evaluation sheets and examination charts for athletes.
Meet The Team
Masatoshi Hiroura
Masatoshi Hiroura is the CEO within the Sunbears project. He is proud to have formed a team and be working alongside head coaches, professors in university, international developers and creators, all who are really professionally involved into Sunbears, sharing a common vision - to form a ‘Cloud Campus for Sports’ - a platform that can benefit sports education within the generations to come.
Among many exciting and memorable times amongst the team and collaborators, his favourite moment was walking in the Oze National Park, in Japan.
.jpg)
Attila Biró
As a "Co-Father" of Sunbears, his main roles are of Software and Business Developer, Innovator, and Leader. He is motivated by the drive to constantly create and improve, while being part of a team where transparency and friendship are the main ingredients, and at the same time, our key to success.
Attila enjoys electric unicycling, especially for the adrenaline it brings into daily life. Just as much, he loves traveling, reading, ice skating during winters, and contributing to environmental matters. More so, he sees his work as a hobby in itself.
Pleases scroll down to see more.
Yin-Han Yang (Zoe)
Within FBTriangle, Zoe is the Visual Content Producer, and also actively contributing to our Branding initiatives. Accidentally became the leader of the girl's Marketing Team of Sunbears.
Zoe loves nothing but thinking stuff, imagining stuff, and also, watching travel and food videos in her warm cosy room. She's also a composer and video producer with dance companies globally.
Corina Maereanu
Corina joined the Sunbears team as an intern and is now working as a Marketing Executive, with several PR and Branding duties. She enjoys the warm and radiant atmosphere of the team, and finds the Sunbears 'kaizen' (i.e., 'continuous improvement') approach to be a real motivation!
She loves discovering the world through as many ways possible, and particularly enjoys cooking, maintaining an active lifestyle, along with researching into health, nutrition, psychology, and philosophy.
Yuriko Hiroura
Translator, Content Creator in charge of Sunbears App Tutorials, also managing our YouTube channel. Yuriko admires that, despite our team's diverse career and cultural backgrounds, as well as our individualities, everyone is always keen to cooperate and maintain a warm atmosphere.
Alongside her current roles, she's got a background in dancing and massage therapy, and loves making delicious and pretty cookies in her spare time.
Alice Chen
Alice is responsible for Google Ads and Analytics, as well as for introducing Sunbears to new clients and reaching out for potential customers. She sees the Sunbears team as a melting pot - genderless and cross nationalities, all members being equal and willing to share their true feelings and thoughts. She enjoys brainstorming together and spreads so much love within the team.
Alice is a person who physically lives in the big city, but is mentally jazzing in the mountains. Passionate in all kinds of interaction with people and loves to share stories.
Feyza Birlik
Software Tester of Sunbears, also responsible for creating various and original drills, which she greatly enjoys. These can be found within our Drills Library!
Feyza is happy to be a part of the team because of the constant, hands-on learning opportunities and chances to gain more experience while also having fun!
Kumi Kubota
Translator, Customer Service in Japanese, also in charge of Google Ads. Having joined Sunbears in September 2020, Kumi has found the team unique, with a challenging spirit and global collaborative working environment. Her favorite Sunbears’ value is “to contribute to society for the next generations”.
Kumi moved to San Francisco after spending 20 years in Asia with a profession in management, editing and writing. “It’s never too late to learn” is her favorite quote. She enjoys the healthy life in California with a recently adopted dog.
Yuge Zhao
As an intern in the marketing department, Yuge has just joined the Sunbears team to assist the Marketing Executive in completing the tasks of promotion, social media operation, and customer service.
She loves challenges, which can stimulate her passion for life. At the same time, she enjoys living in peace and trying to maintain a peaceful heart through exercising and listening to music. As a sports lover, Yuge is ready to contribute to improving sports around the world!
Chloe Eck (Hiroura)
Chloe is the newest member of the Marketing Team, joining in May 2022. From Kentucky in the United States, she now calls Tokyo home as well. She is excited to grow and learn with such a wonderful and international team, and she looks forward to sharing Sunbears with people around the world.
Chloe spends her free time either in her happy place (at home on the sofa) or taking weekend trips into fresh air. She finds happiness in animals, nature, gaming, and sitting outside with a mystery novel and a cool breeze.
Rethink connection
Whether for the young or the senior sports professionals, Sunbears is meant not only to assist your team performance management, but also to connect you with the sports community. We aim to connect more professionals, while setting our focus on the ‘people’ instead of the ‘business’.
Any idea or question? Welcome to contact us if you have any!