Things learned, observed in Pacific winter sports season Week 1.0

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer gathers himself against the nearest lamppost, takes a huge, deep breath, then resumes his headlong dash from fall to winter sports seasons:

-- And just what of that? How soon is "too soon" with regard to some athletes having to make a lightning-quick transition from fall to winter sports seasons?

-- Seven days after taking off their football helmets for the last time at the Far East Division I championship game on Okinawa, Myles Andrews and Kazden Batey of Yokota were on the hardwood at Sasebo Naval Base, unlearning all their gridiron knowledge and trying to pick up basketball plays on the fly for coach Tim Pujol, who himself had to make a quick adjustment from football to hoops. Likewise, Lotty Smith went from quarterbacking Kadena to that Division I title to donning jersey, shorts and sneaks in just eight days.

-- Same held true for Kristina Bergman, Angie Robinet, Maleah Potts Cash and the Daegu American volleyball crew, which went almost immediately from championship glory in the Division II tournament at Misawa Air Base on Nov. 12 to a basketball road trip to Suweon and Seoul on Friday and Saturday. Erika Ettl of Yokota no sooner put away her tennis racket than she found herself indoors refining her hoops mechanics.

-- To be fair, those facing quick season conversions didn’t do so badly in their first turns on the hardwood; teams with football, tennis and volleyball players making the changeover went a combined 11-5 as the basketball season began.

-- Well, it actually began a week earlier, when Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference Division II’s schedule opened with a full slate of games Nov. 12-13. First time I can ever remember the fall and winter sports seasons actually overlapping.

-- Gad, and I’m one of the last men standing in the Pacific who remember when the basketball regular season began in JANUARY, for cryin’ out loud. Fall season ended in mid-November with the traditional Far East tournaments, students were given time to get the dings and wounds healed and the grades back up to speed before basketball and wrestling practice began in December, with a few non-league "friendlies" and preseason competition dotting the schedule. The "real" season would begin just after the New Year, and that schedule would resemble a track meet, with games Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays leading up to the Far East tournaments in late February.

-- Truthfully, it’s time DODDS and the districts/conferences around the Pacific look at implementing a "dead week" between the dates of the last Far East fall tournaments and the start of tryouts – not games – for winter sports. No games should be scheduled prior to December 1. We are talking about young men and women, not automatons. They need to catch a breath, get caught up on studies and get that sore ankle or hamstring fully up to speed.

-- To be fair, I know that the Hong Kong International Basketball Tournament, in which Kadena, Kubasaki and, for the first time this year, Yokota participate, takes place Thanksgiving weekend. It’s tough enough for coaches in mid-fall season to have to fund-raise and figure out who they’re taking to Hong Kong when they don’t even have their teams set yet.

-- Then, there are the demands of scheduling games when international schools and DODDS, especially in Korea, have differing winter breaks and blackout dates; hence, why the winter season has started earlier and earlier every year.

-- Think for a minute, though; who is the early start to the winter season most unfair to?

-- Sure is shaping up to be a battle of the big men on Okinawa this boys basketball season. Senior Jason Sumpter of reigning Division I champion Kadena averaged 21.5 points as the Panthers split their first two games against Japanese teams. But he got outdone by Kubasaki’s 6-foot-6 senior Kentrell Key, who posted monster numbers, 44 points and 20 rebounds in the Dragons’ 107-88 win at Mirai Tech. He came a bit back to Earth with just 15 in Kubasaki’s 108-78 home win over Koza, but that left it up to Xavier Price who nearly posted a triple-double, with 23 points, 10 boards and five assists.

-- Even in defeat, Matthew C. Perry sure boasts some scoring firepower of its own. Senior Jonathan Ayers netted 40 points in a losing cause as the Samurai fell 81-71 at E.J. King. On the girls’ side, Rebekah Harwell – another one dropping a tennis racket and donning hoops gear in a matter of eight days – scored 12 of Perry’s 14 points in a 23-14 loss at E.J. King, then had 14 of the Samurai’s 17 in a 47-17 loss to Ettl and Yokota.

-- Ettl? She averaged 17.7 in three games, all Yokota victories. And after Warren Manegan got hurt for Yokota’s boys in their 71-29 win at E.J. King, Kazden Batey – another football guy – stepped up and averaged 18 points as the Panthers swept their three games at Sasebo.

-- Something tells me we’re going to be seeing the name Xavier quite a bit this winter. In addition to Price, TWO teams carry a Xavier Jones, Kadena and E.J. King, and Robert D. Edgren has Xavier Major.

-- Bergman, football star Darius Wyche and Daegu began strong, the boys winning 43-23 and the girls 54-13 at Gyeonggi Suwon International, in its first season in KAIAC Division I. But the next day … heartbreak for the Warriors, who each lost close ones, the boys 52-45 and the girls 30-28 at Seoul Foreign.

100 days.

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