The Iwate Big Bulls are about to begin experiencing something every professional sports team must encounter: an inaugural season.
Iwate, a bj-league expansion team, begins play without a history or an identity. The team faces the visiting Sendai 89ers in the opening weekend of the bj-league's 2011-12 season as a region devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami welcomes a new pro team as a source of regional pride and entertainment.
In other first-weekend matchups, the Niigata Albirex BB play host to the Shinshu Brave Warriors, another first-year club. Another expansion squad, the Yokohama B-Corsairs, takes on the two-time defending champion Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix. This season's fourth expansion squad, the Chiba Jets, begins its season next weekend.