By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 27, 2008
No question, Seoul American's boys field a very strong starting lineup, but does coach Steve Boyd's Falcons have the complementing depth behind the front five to spell them when they tire, or step in when one gets hurt?
And can new Kadena coach Dewayne Pigge' keep that marvelous run of three Class AA titles in six years going as he assumes the Panthers' helm from Ken Hudson, who stepped down after last season?
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 27, 2008
Rare is it that a freshman can enter a high school varsity basketball team's lineup and have an immediate impact.
But not often is that freshman a basketball coach's daughter (Paul Ettl of Yokota's boys). She's already honed her skills in youth ball and played her father in countless games of H-O-R-S-E in the backyard. As a result, Erika Ettl of Yokota has stepped in in style, averaging 18 points in the Panthers' first three games.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 27, 2008
Folks wanting to keep up with all the doin's in the Hong Kong International School Holiday Basketball Tournament, click here: http://dragonnet.hkis.edu.hk/bb/
Now in its 39th year, the tournament this weekend featuresdefending Far East Class AA Tournament champion Seoul American (boys) and Kadena (girls), along with reigning Far East Girls Class A champion Faith Academy.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 19, 2008
Talk about living in a pressure cooker. Try carrying three Advanced Placement courses, a non-weighted 3.9 grade-point average and balance that with being a three-time defending Far East wrestling tournament gold medalist ... aiming to do what only one other wrestler, Justin L. Miller of Kubasaki (1996-99), has ever done, to win four Far East golds.
That's Kubasaki's Scott Wood. Read his story in this week's Home Team page.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 18, 2008
Speaking of ways it can be done, Devanee' Taylor struck big paydirt by thinking small.
Small, that is, in terms of college size. The Seoul American senior forward in 2009-10 will don the scarlet and grey of Newberry College, a private Lutheran school playing in the NCAA Division II South Atlantic Conference.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 18, 2008
Check out the link:
http://www.meacsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=98160&SPID=12090&ATCLID=1626394&DB_OEM_ID=20800
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 12, 2008
Playing at the small-schools level is paying big dividends for a Robert D. Edgren Eagles program that's emerging as a Far East Class A power.
The Eagles won their third straight Class A football title, and added a Class A cross-country title in the first year that Far East meet team titles have been segregated by enrollment. And the Class A cheerleading team title remains the Eagles' province as well.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 8, 2008
Musings and mutterings from Yongsan Garrison after Redemption Week comes to a resounding end with one of the great football games of our time:
-- We knew Willie Brown was a good basketball player, but the athletic Seoul American senior seems quite adept where the gridiron is concerned. Try a 24-yard interception-return touchdown and a fumble recovery that set up the game-winning score in the Falcons' 22-21 dethroning of 2007 Far East Class AA football champion Kadena.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 7, 2008
Musings and mutterings as we near the finish line of what's been an incredible week:
-- Sometimes it takes getting one's toes stepped on to awaken a team and make it realise that a title repeat must truly be earned. Osan American's girls volleyball team showed true grit, righting itself after Morrison Christian Academy rallied from down 0-2 to send Friday's Girls Class A Volleyball Tournament to a second final match. Celine Baldevia, Laura Vega, Nicole Sparks, Angela Thompson and blocking specialist Ieva Bytautaite ultimately prevailed in four sets. But it was anything but easy.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 6, 2008
Musings and mutterings as Ornauer prepares to fly with the dawn patrol toward a Class AA football rendezvous:
-- She said it herself in Stripes' tennis season preview, "There's always somebody out there better." On Thursday for Kennedy Allen, that somebody better came along in the form of Elissa Mason, a Kadena junior who dethroned the Seoul American junior and defending Far East Tennis Tournament girls singles champion 6-4, 6-2. Mason spent much of the day attacking Allen's backhand and keeping per pinned to the baseline -- Mason's stated gameplan -- and from the very first game, when Mason rallied from love-40 for a service break, it was clear this day would be different.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 6, 2008
Musings and mutterings as Ornauer gives up trying to find the guy who sells the eye toothpicks:
-- They might as well rename the entire week Redemption Week. Days after Seoul American's cross-country team and Nadine Mulvany of Nile C. Kinnick vindicated themselves at Misawa Air Base after subpar 2007 seasons, Kadena's boys doubles duo of Kyle Sprow and Eliott Mason made amends for finishing second in last year's Far East tennis tournament final. Sprow and Mason, juniors each, polished off Jay Pothula and John Bogen of Kinnick 6-2, 6-2 at their home Risner Tennis Complex.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 6, 2008
2008 Far East High School Football Playoffs
Class A
Championship
Saturday, Nov. 1
Robert D. Edgren (Japan) 35, Osan American (South Korea) 7
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 4, 2008
Musings and mutterings as Ornauer's backpack begins to feel like two tons of lead:
-- Yes, you can redeem yourself. Seoul American's cross-country team, and junior Josh Ecker, proved that resoundingly as the Falcons captured their second overall team championship in three years. That came following a 2007 season that included the coaching staff stepping down and a runner revolt over a bus incident following a regular-season meet, and Ecker being sent home from Far East on Okinawa for an unspecified code of conduct violation. The Falcons nearly ran the table, the boys and girls going a combined 37-1 in all events, regular season and Far East. And Ecker? "He's done everything we've asked him to do and he'sbeen a model citizen," first-year coach Steve Boyd said. "Kids make mistakes. But we as adults must give them the chance to learn from their mistakes and move on, and that's exactly what Josh did." A tip of Ornauer's Red Sox cap to Falcons Sports Nation. Well done!
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 3, 2008
Musings and mutterings as the cheers die down at Misawa Air Base's Gosser Memorial Golf Course:
-- That, of course, is where the Redeem Champion, Nadine Mulvany of Nile C. Kinnick, returned to the Far East Cross Country mountaintop she visited in 2006. That last few hundred meters showed true grit, as she battled Kadena's two-time runner-up Chasity Cordova hammer and tongs until going ahead on that gruelling, final hill.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 2, 2008
Can a Class A vs. Class AA football championship game work?
A great many realities stand in the way, two of them being money and wherecould such a gamebe worked into an already packed-so-tightly-the-Thin-Man-couldn't-find-standing-room season schedule.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 1, 2008
Musings and mutterings from Misawa, now that Ornauer has managed to chip the icicles off his eyebrows and schnozz:
Class A championship
By Dave Ornauer
Published: November 1, 2008
Just two days until the balls go flying across the net as Far East High School Tennis and Volleyball Tournaments begin their runs, tennis at Kadena, Girls Class A volleyball at Daegu and Class AA on Guam.
To set the table:
