Never Say Die!

Guangfu Elementary’s Little League Tradition Lives On

Esther Tseng　/　photos Kent Chuang　/　tr. by Phil Newell

October 2026

中文

While there are 100 baseball players at Dong Yuan Elementary School in Taipei City, Guangfu Elementary School in Hualien County has only just over 100 students and teachers combined. Yet they carry a torch for baseball that dates back more than 70 years.

They don’t have luxurious facilities or even sufficient players, but rely entirely on the kids’ enthusiasm for the game. The sound of balls being caught and the crack of the bat are both resounding and touching.

“Hello, Coach!” The clear voices greeting the coach reverberate across the field. The players on Guangfu Elementary’s Little League team first bow respectfully to the head coach together before warming up with 100 jumping jacks.

Cradle of Taiwan’s Little League baseball

Guangfu’s Little League team has a long history behind it, dating back to 1949. It has produced a large number of well-known professional and national team players including Chou Szu-chi, Tsao Chin-hui, Kao Kuo-hui, and the Rakuten Monkeys’ Ma Chieh-sen.

In recent years, with the outflow of population from rural areas, the number of students at Guangfu has fallen, with less than ten children entering the school for first grade in 2026. There are only 13 players on the Little League team, including kids from all six grades—the roster is open to any child at the school who likes baseball.

Lin Jia-hong, who took up his job as coach only last year, states: “I think this is the spirit of Guangfu baseball—the love of the game. Despite the school having fewer and fewer students, the Little League team still practices every day. Kids join the team and go out in the sunshine each day, instead of staying indoors playing video games, because they enjoy the sport.” Team members even continue to play catch after returning home, and if there is no scheduled practice on a Saturday or Sunday, they will show up at the school to train on their own.

Players use retired classroom desks for fixed-point hitting practice (normally done with a tee), to master the kinetic chain of hitting and ensure their swing path is not too low.

Practice fielding ground balls.

Help for baseball dreams

The role of the Little League team far transcends athletic training. Because many parents are under financial stress, the school works through the Moonlight Angel Program to provide the kids with free meals after finishing after-school practice at 6 p.m. It also offers tutoring to help them with classwork.

The after-school tutoring and free meals for all Little League team members are important, says Lin: “They can reduce the burden on parents by a lot.”

Chou Szu-chi, a Guangfu Elementary alumnus who received a scholarship from a fund created by Kuo Yuen-chih (a famous player who pitched in Japan for 16 years) and won an annual MVP award in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), founded the Taiwan Basegarden Baseball Development Association (Basegarden) in 2013. Devoting long-term attention to the Guangfu Little League team, Basegarden has regularly donated books and fresh milk to the squad, and provides concrete encouragement by offering scholarships of up to NT$5,000 per semester, along with baseball gloves and cleats, to outstanding players whose total grade average is 80 or above.

In addition, the Bank of Taiwan invited the Little League teams from Guangfu Elementary and Tafalong Elementary (also located in Hualien’s Guangfu Township) to attend a game at the Taipei Dome. The children excitedly told us about their wonderful memories of the trip: stepping onto the outfield grass in the Dome to shag fly balls, eating breakfast at McDonald’s, and visiting the Taipei Zoo.

Baseball can also develop character.

Earnest from field to classroom

The Little League players not only have to practice baseball, they must also pay attention to their schoolwork and character development. The team’s usual routine includes having the children complete part of their homework before beginning practice. On the day of our visit, the ace pitcher had not yet finished his homework and had to stay behind in the classroom.

Sixth graders Xu Zihuan and Huang Che may be teammates, but they are also classmates who are always competing to see who will be number one in academic work.

Xu tells us that when he hit his first home run in an exhibition game, he felt a great sense of achievement. Even after a rough training session, when the next day he can hardly walk because of sore leg muscles, he still continues to go to practice. Huang, meanwhile, recently represented the school at a county-sponsored Amis-language reading competition, where he performed admirably. He says that in class he listens attentively to the teacher, but he also loves pitching. Last year he even won a scholarship from Basegarden, showing his versatility.

Wang Yang-en, who previously attended the nearby Wanrong Elementary School, which has no baseball team, transferred to Guangfu Elementary to pursue his baseball dreams. Though he hasn’t been at his new school for long, he says: “I feel really comfortable here.” He has rapidly integrated seamlessly into the team, and feels he is making progress at daily throwing and catching practice.

Children will inevitably grow up. Though the team may grow smaller, Guangfu’s baseball dream will live on.

After school, the kids can practice baseball only after doing their homework.

Passing down a tradition

At present every player on the Guangfu Little League team is of Indigenous ancestry. Coach Lin Jia-hong says that Indigenous kids have an innate advantage in athletic coordination and are nimble and smooth when running or throwing. When giving the kids instruction in the latter, he merely says: “When you throw, just extend your arm forward and release the ball in line with your target.” Even with such a simple reminder, the children can naturally understand and execute his directions.

He often encourages the children by telling them that Guangfu graduates who have gone on to become professional stars didn’t start off by being able to play well from the outset. They succeeded only by practicing daily and gaining experience.

Though the number of players on the Little League team at Guangfu Elementary is dwindling, Lin suggests that because baseball is more than a sport—being also part of the children’s healthy maturation and a force for building character and self-confidence—as long as there are any kids willing to carry on swinging the bat and catching the ball on the field, the Guangfu baseball spirit will live on forever.