Kochi Chuo High School

2026 season

Currently 1st in the Kochi Prefectural League Division 1 with 27 points from 11 matches (9W 0D 2L, 51-15). Updated daily.

Playing style

The club's motto is "Courage, Challenge, Emotion" (勇気・挑戦・感動), and its stated philosophy borrows a well-known football saying: "football turns boys into men, and men into gentlemen." The coaching aim, in the club's own words, is to raise people who can "stand on their own as the protagonist of their own lives". On the pitch, the club says it wants to value technique, decision-making and game intelligence, and to play football that is "enjoyable to play and enjoyable to watch".

Kochi Chuo has no attached junior high school, so it recruits widely. The squad registered for the 2026 Inter-High shows the pattern: most players came from junior club teams in Osaka and the wider Kansai region, including the junior-youth sides of Gamba Osaka, with a smaller group from clubs and school teams in Kochi itself. The squad numbered 65 players in April 2026.

The 2026 Inter-High summed up the team's character: two tight matches against strong opposition. In the first round Kochi Chuo drew 2-2 with Kokushikan of Tokyo and won the penalty shoot-out 4-2. In the second round it lost 0-1 to Shohei, one of the strongest school teams in the country.

Honours

History

• 2005 — The football club is founded. The current head coach, who went on to study at Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, was one of the first group of players.
• 2007 — Only two years after its founding, Kochi Chuo plays in the Prince League Shikoku, finishing seventh. In the winter it wins the Kochi qualifying tournament and plays in the opening match of the 86th All Japan High School Soccer Tournament, at the old National Stadium in Tokyo. It loses in the first round.
• 2008 — First Inter-High appearance, at the tournament held in Saitama.
• 2018 — Second Inter-High appearance, in Mie, after winning the Kochi qualifying tournament.
• 2019 — Kochi Chuo returns to the Prince League Shikoku and finishes sixth. The Nigerian forward ONYE Ogochukwu Promise wins the league's scoring title with 25 goals, and joins Y.S.C.C. Yokohama in January 2020.
• 2021 — A third Inter-High appearance, in Fukui. OTABOR Kenneth, another Nigerian forward, goes straight from the school to Iwate Grulla Morioka. In the league, ninth place means relegation from the Prince League.
• 2022 — Champions of the Shikoku High School Soccer Championship.
• 2023 — Back in the Prince League Shikoku for one season, but tenth place sends the team down again.
• 2025 — The breakthrough year. At the Inter-High in Fukushima, Kochi Chuo starts in the second round against Maebashi Ikuei, the reigning winter champions, falls behind in the first half and wins 2-1 with two goals in stoppage time. Ohzu High School end the run 7-0 in the last 16. In November Kochi Chuo reaches the final of the Kochi qualifying tournament for the winter championship and loses 0-1 to Kochi High School after extra time. It wins the Kochi Prefectural League Division 1, but on 20 December loses the Prince League Shikoku play-off 1-2 to Tokushima Shogyo High School.
• 2026 — Kochi Chuo wins the Kochi Inter-High qualifying tournament. It beats Kochi High School on penalties (1-1, 5-3) in the semi-final, and on 25 May beats Meitoku Gijuku 2-1 after extra time in the final. That made it the first team in Japan to qualify for the 2026 finals, and its fifth Inter-High in all. At the finals it beats Kokushikan on penalties and loses 0-1 to Shohei in the second round.

Development pathway

For readers new to Japanese youth football: high-school teams and J.League academies play in the same national league pyramid. At the top is the U-18 Premier League (EAST and WEST), then nine regional Prince Leagues (Kochi is in the Shikoku region), then the prefectural leagues. Promotion from a prefectural league to the Prince League goes through a year-end play-off. Two high-school tournaments carry even more prestige than the league: the summer Inter-High and the winter championship, which is televised nationally and ends at the National Stadium in January. Each prefecture sends its own qualifiers, so a small prefecture such as Kochi usually has one place in each. The Japanese school year starts in April, so a "2025–26" season runs from spring 2025 to the winter championship in January 2026.

• A newcomer in an established prefecture. Football in Kochi has long been led by Kochi High School and Meitoku Gijuku, both with far longer histories. Kochi Chuo, founded in 2005, has broken into that group. In 2025 and 2026 it played Kochi High School in the knockout rounds of both major qualifying tournaments, losing the 2025 winter final and winning the 2026 Inter-High semi-final.
• Recruiting from Kansai. Without an attached junior high school, the club draws most of its players from junior club teams in Osaka and the surrounding Kansai region, a short journey from Shikoku across the Seto Inland Sea, alongside local players from Kochi.
• Players from Nigeria. Two of the club's best-known players came from Nigeria as international students: ONYE Ogochukwu Promise from Dynamo Sports Foundation, and OTABOR Kenneth from Sports Dreams FC. Both went from the school straight into J.League clubs.
• A building club. Kochi Chuo has moved between the Prince League Shikoku and the prefectural league several times. Its current aim is to win back a regional league place, after losing the 2025 play-off.

Former players

• ONYE Ogochukwu Promise (forward, EDO ALL UNITED) — came to the school from Dynamo Sports Foundation in Nigeria and became the team's leading striker. He was top scorer of the Prince League Shikoku in his final year, 2019, with 25 goals. He joined Y.S.C.C. Yokohama straight from school in January 2020 and stayed there until the end of 2025. For 2026 he moved to EDO ALL UNITED of the Kanto Soccer League Division 1, a regional league below the J.League.
• OTABOR Kenneth (forward, Tochigi SC) — came to the school from Sports Dreams FC in Nigeria. He joined Iwate Grulla Morioka straight from school in 2021, making his J.League debut in April that year, and later wore Iwate's number 10. In February 2025 he moved to Tochigi SC on a permanent transfer, and he plays for them in J3 in 2026.

Current players are not named on this page. None of them has an English spelling published by the JFA, the J.League or a club, so their names are not romanised here.

Notes

Full profile in Japanese, with the current squad list and every result: 高知中央高校.

Where a player has no official English spelling published by the JFA or the J.League, the name is shown in Japanese.

See also: Premier League standings and how youth football works in Japan.