Things learned, observed in Pacific high school winter sports season Week 13.0
Published: February 20, 2011
Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer basks in the warm environs of the emerald island of Guam and prepares … no, braces … for the Far East High School Division I Basketball Tournaments:
-- Now that St. Mary’s International has practically run the table in all boys competitions in Far East High School sports tournaments since the fall, what does that say for the decision to restore international –school eligibility in individual sports such as tennis, cross country and wrestling? It says: "To the rest of the Far East: You are on notice – either ramp up your game or get left behind. International schools are here to stay. The DODDS-only days of legislated paper gold medals are gone and the cavalry is not coming back. Time to pull up the bootstraps and show what stuff you’re made of.
-- Heavyweight Chidi Agbo and the Titans’ outdistancing Kadena 69-52 in the Far East wrestling tournament individual freestyle team standings and edging the Panthers 31-27 in the dual-meet final is just the latest triumph for the denominational school in southwest Tokyo. Kent Shikama and Stephan Byland dominated the Far East boys tennis tournament singles and doubles titles, while Kelly Langley pulled off an unofficial "triple crown" in cross country.
-- Certainly, the Titans are the "it" boys sports program of the current school year.
-- And keep in mind, Shikama is just a freshman and isn’t going anywhere. And coach Ian Harlow only loses three seniors off his wrestling team.
-- Are these good times to be a Titan or what?
-- Confidential to Jon Rhodes: If you’re reading this, know that I wish you could have been there to see the whole thing unfold.
-- Those individual freestyle gold-medal bouts should have been entitled "Redemption Wednesday." Six of eight returning silver medalists enjoyed that oh, so sweet taste of victory, rising up to the top of the podium to accept those long-awaited gold medals. Among them, Kubasaki’s Matt Payne (180), Steven Walter (101) and Jon Goddard (141), Kadena’s Aaron Ahner (215) and Jacob Bishop (148) and Yokota’s Devin Day (135).
-- They talk about how rare it is for a wrestler to win four Far East gold medals; only two have done so. But how about Bishop, who may likely be the only wrestler ever to finish fourth, third, second and first in his four Far Easts?
-- But how many times have we seen it, a Far East individual freestyle gold medalist get his come-uppance in the dual-meet tournament the next day? And how many unexpected rise-ups you see among heretofore punching bags?
-- Call it "Turnabout Thursday." Try St. Mary’s Brendan Hymas decision over Bishop in the dual-meet final, a day after Bishop beat Hymas for the gold? Or Kadena’s David Hernandez (101) finally getting his first victory of the season over Walter? Then, there was David Knight, Kadena’s 168-pounder, finally beating Kubasaki’s Fred Suniga after the latter owned him most of the season.
-- Blog post interruption: For you old-timers, Knight happens to be the son of David Knight the former AFN Eagle 810-AM disc jockey from the 1990s, the guy they called "Knight in the Morning." The elder is now a DODDS teacher on Okinawa.
-- Perhaps the most famous instance of freestyle-to-dual-meet turnabout took place the second year of the dual-meet tournament, 1996. Kubasaki’s Justin L. Miller flopped Nile C. Kinnick’s Mike Gamboa all around the ring for the individual gold, then later that same day, Gamboa handed Miller – the first four-time Far East gold medalist – the only loss of his high-school career in the dual-meet finals.
-- Not often do you see a dual-meet final come down to the heavyweights, as was the case when Agbo rallied to beat Kadena’s Gabe Ahner in Thursday’s championship meet. And not often do you see a heavyweight lift another into the air for a three-point throw. Agbo’s soon-to-be-YouTube sensation (well, OK, maybe not; a quick search turned up nothing) should have been scored a five-point throw. Automatic tech. Game, set, gold medal to St. Mary’s.
-- Confidential to Faith Academy and Morrison Academy athletics directors Kathy Wassell and Don Dwight: It’s time for you to roll the mats out of storage and dust off the singlets. Your schools used to have dynamite wrestling programs until DODDS slammed the door in your face seven years ago. Now, the door is open. Wide open. Time to get the fellers who’ve moved onto other things such as rugby back into the wrestling room. I’m sure Faith’s old coach, Steve Schwarze, would happily get back into the room and develop the next generation of Jon Barrs.
-- Good point raised by Guam High coach Joe Taitano at the Boys D-I Basketball Tournament coaches’ meeting Sunday at the Bayview Hotel: If a coach is facing the possibility of a three-team tie in pool play and needs to up his team’s point differential by scoring more, but can’t because his team is leading by 30 or more points, at which point the mercy rule kicks in, his starters must come out, no fast breaks, no pressing … and loses out on a top seed as a result … a Catch 22 of the worst order. The same issue had been discussed at the pre-tournament coaches’ meeting last year at Yokota, but apparently nothing has been done to change it.
-- Enjoyable travel moment of the week: Gotta love the bus lane on the Kyongbu Expressway in South Korea. Cuts the time from Humphreys to Yongsan in half.
-- Next wonder of the world: Viewing while training it to Narita, Tokyo’s new Sky Tree tower, soon to be the tallest man-made structure in Japan, I can’t help but wonder how it will revolutionise communications, TV, satellite and online, in the coming years. I know this: I would never want to be caught on top of that thing in a high wind; I have enough trouble with heights aboard an airliner.
Eight days.
