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BLOOMINGTON — Illinois Wesleyan's football team will be getting a head start on the 2017 season halfway around the world.

The Titans will face Waseda University in the Global Bowl Toyko 2017 on June 4 at Amino Field in Chofu, Japan. This is the sixth foreign trip for IWU since 1996, but first in Asia. The others were all in Europe.

IWU will take 50 players, including sophomores, juniors and seniors for the upcoming season and three graduated seniors from last year's team. The Titans had their first of 10 practices allowed by the NCAA on Monday.

"Our kids are very excited," said IWU coach Norm Eash. "This is a little different from Europe where we played club teams. In Japan, American football is very, very organized."

Waseda was one of three universities that began playing American football in 1934. There are 209 schools playing football. Waseda is in the top group, Division I, and lost last year to Kwansei Gakian, 31-14, in the Koshien Bowl, which is the national championship game.

"I think they are like a Division II, top Division III type of play (in the United States) when you watch them on tape," said Eash. "They're well disciplined and run basic zone plays and power, but they do a lot of trick plays and give a lot of formations and motion.