"One Last Year, Together"

He went back to university, but admitted he felt "a strong resistance to going out as a person with a disability." One classmate, Hiroki Sawano, would not stop getting in touch. When their class reached its final year, the team asked Sugita to come back — one last year, let's do rugby together. More than two and a half years after the injury, he rejoined the club, not as a player but as a data analyst.