Snow puts damper on early-season spring sports
Published: March 11, 2010
Looks like the Eagles are going to be waiting awhile longer to hit the great outdoors to even hold a practice, much less play home games or matches in spring sports at Misawa Air Base in northeastern Japan>
Two feet of snow fell on Wednesday, and already at least one Robert D. Edgren coach sent me an e-mail saying it's possible that home soccer matches and baseball and softball games March 19-20 against Zama American could be in danger of being postponed or even canceled altogether; there's no other weekend left this season when the two schools won't be playing elsewhere and not have a bye.
Edgren's baseball and softball trip south to Yokota was canceled; the Eagles couldn't make the trip on Thursday following Wednesday's blizzard.
Same problem to a lesser extent in Korea and Japan, where some events were interrupted while others proceeded.
Yokota and Zama American played soccer matches in the snow on Tuesday, the Panthers losing and the Trojans winning; meanwhile, rain pelted Yokosuka Naval Base, where Nile C. Kinnick fell 4-1 to Yokohama International. Zama at Kinnick baseball on Tuesday and softball on Wednesday got rained out.
Over in the Frozen Chosun, Seoul American, Osan American and Daegu American endured a rare March snow day after at least half a foot of the powdery stuff fell on Wednesday, and three of four league matches were scotched as a result. Daegu was to visit Taejon Christian International, Osan was to host Seoul International and Seoul American was to entertain Yongsan International-Seoul.
Like Japan, making up such games is nigh onto impossible. While transportation is the big bugaboo in Japan, blackout dates, differing spring-vacation weeks and two Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference teams playing in the Asia-Pacific Activities Conference tournament affect the ability to reschedule games. TCIS boys coach Brian O'Neill said the likelihood that the TCIS at Daegu matches on April 27 will count double in the league standings as a result of not being able to reschedule.
As an FYI, weekend weather in the Tokyo area looks good, even warming up to 18 Celcius with partly-cloudy skies on Saturday. Tuesday looks nasty, 70-percent chance of rain. Korea's weekend, cloudy on Friday, partly cloudy Saturday, high of 11 degrees; bit chilly, but more playable than Wednesday.
