By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 15, 2012
“The Wall” and “The Bulldozer” corral the Mustangs – Katey Helwick could not have been more surprised or disappointed.
The American School In Japan forward stood point-blank away from netting the equalizer, five or six feet in front of the Nile C. Kinnick net and released a shot toward the far post that had “goal” written all over it.
“Permission denied,” Red Devils senior goalkeeper Emily “The Wall” Stith replied. Not with words, as much as with a full-out dive to her right and catching Helwick’s laser with her outstretched right hand.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 15, 2012
Quarterfinal round is next here in the Pacific Sports Blog Nation Far East baseball tournament, and now we begin to see the ace armaments that each team has brought to the table in a bid to reach the Final Four.
Here goes:
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 15, 2012
One change at the top; Nos. 1 and 2 flip-flopped with each other. But that doesn't change the fact that Okinawa brings yet another strong entry to Far East in Division I next week. Install E.J. King as the favorite in Division II, but look out, for a Cougar (Osan American) just might be gaining on you:
1, Kubasaki, Okinawa. Champions at last, the Dragons won the best-of-three Okinawa Activities Council championship series over Kadena.
2, Kadena, Okinawa. May 12 is going to resonate in the Panthers' minds for the next nine days.
3, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan. Red Devils got better and better with every passing week; they're the best bet to give Okinawa a run for its money, if the pitching is there.
4, E.J. King, Japan. The D-II final against Osan American, which scored a rate two-game DODDS Korea sweep over the weekend, should be classic.
5, Seoul American. That 9-3 loss on Saturday at Osan could be the slap across the face with a wet squirrel the Falcons needed.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 15, 2012
Hate like heck to call it the Far East asterisk tournament. But it is what it is. Question being, which DODDS team will raise the banner after the last out is recorded.
Here goes:
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 15, 2012
Little has changed since our first ratings on April 29. The Kanto Invitational demonstrated this clearly: It’s all about who brings the best and most balance to next week’s Far East meet:
1, American School In Japan. Trevor Maggart vs. Erik Armes won’t happen at this Far East. The former thus should clean up in the distance events.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 15, 2012
With the Far East tournaments less than a week away, here’s how the top 10 might look if we were to have combined D-I and D-II tournaments in the same location (more on that in a future post).
Boys
1, Christian Academy Japan (5-0). Been awhile since Knights have visited the mountaintop; this might be their best chance.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 14, 2012
Anybody remember Andre “A.J.” Watson of Kubasaki, who last year set the Pacific’s 100-meter dash record in 10.54 seconds and equaled the 200-meter mark of 21.4 set in 1977?
Look what he’s up to now. Watson last Saturday broke South Carolina’s 11-year-old state record in the 200, clocking a 21.16, in helping lead Whale Branch Early College High of Beaufort, S.C., to South Carolina’s 1-A championship.
Supporting him were former Osan American products Brian and Brandon Morton and Vishawn Burrage.
Kubasaski’s loss is Beaufort’s gain. Next up, Watson is being eyed by South Carolina, Georgia Southern and Coastal Carolina; Watson’s stated goal is to become a Gamecock. Stay tuned.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 10, 2012
That’s why they play the games on the field, so the saying goes. Though the field of play in this tournament is one of the imagination, every now and then, a double-digit seed comes along and shocks the world when least expected.
That was my gut feeling when Round 1 of Pacific Sports Blog’s Far East High School Baseball Tournament of the mind was played (Friday).
Here’s how the first-round games turned out:
Asia Division
Game 2 – No. 5 Seoul American 6, No. 12 Yokota 1 – Chung Winchip struck out six and allowed only a solo home run by Panthers starter and loser Jesse Christmas. Alex McDonald doubled, tripled and drove in three runs for the Falcons, who advance to a quarterfinal battle with top-seeded American School In Japan.
Game 3 – No. 4 Nile C. Kinnick 8, No. 13 Daegu High 0. Donald Ross, the first punch in the Red Devils’ 1-2 combination, tossed a two-hitter (Sean and Ryan Lattanzi each had infield singles), walked none and struck out 14. Ross’ brother, Daniel, went 4-for-4 with two home runs and six RBI.
Game 4 – No. 8 Robert D. Edgren 2, No. 9 E.J. King 1 – In perhaps the most intriguing battle of the first round, Christian Wolfewicz broke up the Cobras’ Jessee Gorst’s no-hit bid with a solo homer in the seventh inning, and Tristan Jefferson followed with a walk-off blast. Ian Cockerel’s solo shot provided the Cobras their lone run. Eagles advance to face Red Devils in quarterfinals.
Pacific Division
Game 6 – No. 11 Matthew C. Perry 2, No. 6 Guam High 0 – The aforementioned Eagmin hit a two-run homer in the second inning and took advantage of the Panthers’ rusty bats (Guam High hasn’t played since December), allowing no hits and no walks and just missing a perfect game when he hit Panthers starter and loser Eddie Rey Garza with a pitch in the sixth. Samurai now face No. 2 Kubasaki in the quarterfinals.
Game 7 – No. 3 Kadena 7, No. 14 Zama American 2 – Freshman flamethrower Justin Sego shut down the Trojans, save for Christian Venzlauskas, who batted 3-for-3 with two solo homers and a walk. Sego helped himself with two RBI doubles and Jared Paul went 3-for-4, just missing the cycle when grounded out in the fifth.
Game 8 – No. 7 St. Mary’s International 3, No. 10 Osan American 1 – The Titans overcame four errors and starter Sengjae Zhou staved off further damage by striking out 4 and walking none while allowing only a solo blast by Tyler Harding. Daiki Matsunaga was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer in the third inning for St. Mary’s, which advances to the quarterfinals against Kadena.
Matchups and pitching probables coming up this weekend.
Think these results don’t stand the test of the imagination? Particularly the Guam High-Matthew C. Perry game? Sound off! Be true to your school, but remember: You’ve entered “THE” No-Hate Zone.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 10, 2012
It’s official: A new division structure, seven schools each in renamed groups, was announced Thursday in an e-mail received by Stars and Stripes from Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference president Daniel Hale of Yongsan International School-Seoul.
Unlike DODDS Pacific, which groups its schools by enrollment into Divisions I (large) and II (small schools), KAIAC divides theirs by competitive level, Hale said.
Here are the old KAIAC Division I and II alignments, which ends with the current school year:
Division I – Seoul American, Seoul Foreign, Seoul International, Yongsan International-Seoul, Gyeonggi Suwon International, Korea International, Osan American, Taejon Christian International and Daegu High.
Division II – International Christian-Uijongbu, Korea Kent Foreign, Centennial Christian, Indianhead International, International Christian-Pyongtaek and Asia-Pacific International.
Under the new system, the more competitive schools are grouped in what KAIAC calls its “Five-Cities Division,” since the schools are based in Uijeongbu, Seoul, the Pyeongtaek subdivision of Songtan where Osan American is located, Daejeon and Daegu. The lesser competitive schools are grouped in the “Tri-Cities Division,” including Seoul, Suweon and Pyeongtaek.
Five-Cities Division – Seoul American, Seoul Foreign, Taejon Christian International, Yongsan-International-Seoul, Daegu High, Osan American and International Christian-Uijongbu.
Tri-Cities Division – Seoul International, Korea International, International Christian-Pyongtaek, Centennial Christian, Korea Kent Foreign, Asia-Pacific International and Gyeonggi Suwon International.
Indianhead International will no longer exist after this school year, Hale said; he did not elaborate.
Moving ICS-Uijongbu to the higher division should have been done years ago. The Eagles have long dominated Division II in boys volleyball and boys soccer, enough that the latter merited an invitation to the Far East Division II soccer tournament.
But moving SIS, KIS and GSIS to the lower division? … That makes sense up to one point. Specifically, boys soccer. Especially the latter two schools.
GSIS in very short order has risen into a soccer powerhouse, behind the play of Danny Kwon and Jacob Son and the coaching of former TCIS star Andrew Wiese; the Knights won the KAIAC D-I regular-season title and earned top seed in the postseason tournament, which they also hosted.
Hiro Watanabe and the Tigers have been the only truly competitive program that SIS has fielded since their dynastic girls basketball team of the early 1990s. Yet despite a poor overall record, KIS has served as SIS’ kryptonite, beating the Tigers in three of their last four regular-season meetings.
But a school can’t remain in a setting in which most of its teams are not competitive simply for the want of one good team. “We were aware the change was coming; we’ll deal with it,” Wiese said.
That has to be a bitter pill to swallow for Wiese & Co., though. I’m guessing that GSIS, SIS and KIS will roll through the league for years to come, not necessarily in that order. And you can bet, all three will likely try to schedule non-league “friendly” matches with their Five-Cities brethren or Korean teams or whomever else would want to play them.
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