By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 19, 2013
Mirroring what the old WGBB 1240-AM radio DJ Dave "Fearless Forecaster" Vieser used to do when I was growing up in Merrick, N.Y., time for me to put on my thinking cap, break out the Ouija board, crystal ball and tea leaves and take a crack at who’s going to win what tournaments this week to cap the Far East high school spring sports season:
-- Track and field, Monday-Tuesday, Yokota: No fewer than 19 Far East meet records and as many as six Pacific records are possible (see previous Pacific Sports Blog posts for specifics on what records may fall). The winning Division I team will come from a pack including what I call the K Klub members, Nile C. Kinnick, Kadena and Kubasaki, which sport the best balance. In Division II, expect a pitched battle between Zama American and Zion Christian Academy.
-- Boys Division I soccer, Monday-Thursday, Kadena: Christian Academy Japan is the champion until somebody knocks them off, but they’ll have their hands full dealing with Korea champion Seoul American, Kinnick and especially host Kadena, which has improved by leaps and bounds this year. Could be a Knights vs. Panthers final.
-- Girls Division I soccer, Monday-Thursday, Yokosuka: This isn’t your older sister’s Kubasaki team, not the one loaded with veterans that won the whole shooting match last year. On paper, American School In Japan has the unbeaten record and the pedigreed players, but they’ll get a battle from host Nile C. Kinnick and Yokota. Three of the final four teams could be from Kanto.
-- Boys Division II soccer, Monday-Thursday, Iwakuni: The tournament returns here after a two-year run in Korea. Host Matthew C. Perry isn’t as strong as it was a season ago (not when you graduate 100 goals), but will be in the mix along with Yongsan International-Seoul and Zama; the latter is in position to capture as many as five team banners this spring, which would bring the school’s haul for the year to 10! By far and away a record.
-- Girls Division II soccer, Monday-Thursday, Misawa: Defending champion M.C. Perry is also shorter on firepower than it was a season ago, which could mean that Osan American could rise back to the top. But watch out for International School of the Sacred Heart, which played very strongly this spring.
-- Division I baseball, Thursday-Saturday, Yokota: American School In Japan remains a prohibitive favorite despite that loss Saturday to St. Mary’s International. Still, Kubasaki stayed within a run of the Mustangs when they played in March and there is the matter of that 4-3 win by Yokota over the Mustangs.
-- Division II baseball, Thursday-Saturday, Atsugi: Another tournament that the host Zama Trojans could win, but they’ll get a battle from pitching-heavy Osan and defending champion Robert D. Edgren.
-- Division I softball, Monday-Wednesday, Atsugi: It’s that K Klub thing again. Co-host Kinnick has the arms and the unbeaten record against Japan opponents, but how well will that translate against reigning champion Kadena and runner-up Kubasaki? Don’t count out 2011 champion Seoul American, either.
-- Division II softball, Monday-Wednesday, Atsugi: Yet another tournament that co-host Zama is in excellent position to win; they can pitch and they can hit. Their strongest opposition will come from a rejuvenated Daegu High squad from Korea and always-tough E.J. King of Japan.
Is Ornauer spot on or is he full of hooey? Think your picks are better? Sound off! Be true to your school, but remember: You’ve entered THE “No-Hate Zone.”
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 19, 2013
Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer with great trepidation enters the nine-event Far East tournament week hoping he comes out in one piece on the back side of Saturday:
-- Rain, rain, go away! Will they EVER complete the Okinawa Activities Council district best-of-three baseball finals? Chances aren’t looking good, that’s for sure.
Game 1 was played on May 10 with Renton Poole tossing a two-hitter and Angelo Bourdony and Jaren Blessett combining to drive in seven runs in Kubasaki’s 14-3, run rule-shortened six-inning victory at Kadena.
Games 2 and 3, the latter if necessary, were scheduled for May 11, but that morning the annual monsoon season announced its beginning “with a vengeance,” Kubasaki athletics director Fred Bales said. Vivid lightning, booming thunder and Biblical rains that had most folks looking around for Noah and the Ark.
They tried to make up the games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, without success. On Saturday, the weather broke, but … it was Kadena’s prom night, so playing was out of the question.
They’ll try again on Monday; overcast conditions are forecast. If they do play, it would be possible for Poole to get the wins in both games, should Kubasaki sweep the series and win it for the eighth straight year. It’s the last time they’d be able to finish the series until after the Far East Division I Tournament, scheduled for this Thursday-Saturday at Yokota.
***
-- Panthers softball back on top (but…): They’re Okinawa district champions once more, the Kadena Panthers softball team, reigning Far East D-I Tournament champions who recaptured the district title they’d lost for the first time in league and school history last year to Kubasaki.
The Panthers swept the best-of-three finals 2-0, putting the finishing touches on it Tuesday (so, how did they play and baseball did not?) with a 9-5 win over the Dragons. Maria Vaughan and Morgan Beecher had multiple extra-base hits and Peyton Lettkeman pitched one-hit ball over 5 1/3 innings, striking out seven.
If there’s one disquieting note to Kadena’s performance in the two-game set, it is pitching. Despite getting the wins and holding Kubasaki to a total of five hits in the two games, it’s bases on balls that may, just may be a tiny Achilles’ heel.
Panthers pitching allowed 20 walks in the two games. As baseball coaches are wont to say, if you put the ball over the plate and make hitters out of the batters, you have seven people behind you to help you out. But there is no defense against the walk.
***
-- Whither Kanto Invitational? It’s time that something be done to revive interest in the Kanto Invitational track and field meet; only six girls and five boys teams attended, and only one of those from off-island and that team, Kubasaki of Okinawa, featured just one athlete.
Talk among some of the organizers revolved around flipping the Kanto Invitational with the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools district finals, moving the former to the last week of April – prior to the DODDS Pacific-mandated Far East meet qualifying deadline – and the latter to the second week of May.
This way, the Kanto Invitational becomes the last major Far East qualifier and truly becomes a Far East dress rehearsal, with many of the major players from many more teams in attendance. Not to mention that teams from Okinawa, Korea and Guam that wish to travel to Yokota, the Kanto Invitational’s host site the last few years, won’t be bound by the DODDS restriction on long-haul trips during the two-week Advanced Placement testing period.
And it would also put the Kanto and the Okinawa Activities Council finals on equal footing, with each serving as a district championship, but not a Far East qualifier.
A modest proposal: Make that move.
***
-- As good as advertised, and thensome: American School In Japan regular season-ending girls soccer matches have been as good as advertised, definitely lived up to the hype, so much so that weeks in advance of them, I’d made plans to come to the last two, the Nile C. Kinnick 1-0 victory last May 11 at Yokosuka Naval Base and the Mustangs’ 1-0 rain-soaked win over Yokota last Thursday.
A couple of things resonated with me before, during and after the match, which was delayed 40 minutes by lightning.
The teams and spectators were ordered indoors by the referees to stay out of harm’s way. So all sequestered to ASIJ very well-appointed school cafeteria, where Panthers and Mustangs players – who seem to get along famously! – mingled at a couple of cafeteria tables, blue jersey next to black jersey, played games, sang songs, some good fellowship to pass the time prior to the match.
Rain drenched the match from start to finish, ranging from drizzle to downpour. In the end, the Mustangs took care of the business they didn’t at Yokosuka and salved the wounds from that heartbreaking loss to Kinnick by scoring in the 70th minute, in a manner that had to hurt the hearts of the Panthers as well.
ASIJ’s Kiyomi Powell sent a deep ball from the sideline toward the net and Yokota freshman goalkeeper Sarah Cronin. She appeared to have a good bead on it and had gathered it in … but it somehow slipped beneath her toward the goal and ASIJ’s Maya Szerdaheyli had a clear path to the net. Goal. Game. Set. Match. Mustangs win the Kanto Plain and gain Japan’s top seed into the Far East D-I Tournament (more on that later).
And plenty of fellowship after the match ended, too. ASIJ and Yokota players hugged, and every Panther was there to comfort Cronin, who looked as if her dog had run away. Sarah, that happens to even the best professionals on the biggest of stages (ask Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings about the fluke goal he gave up against the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs). And if that’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you, believe me, you’re doing great.
***
Best of luck to all at Far East this week.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 19, 2013
Last Tuesday was a crucial day in the 14-season history of the U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League: A first meeting between league leadership (the new commissioner, Joe Howell) and a highly positioned USFJ official (incoming command Chief Master Sgt. James Laurent).
Over lunch Tuesday at Yokota Air Base’s Historic Route 16 Japan (nee Outback O’Club Annex), Laurent and Howell discussed the league, the past and the future of interservice football in Japan and the Pacific (DISCLAIMER: I was in attendance at Howell’s invitation).
The discussion was affable and engaging, Howell expressing the need for USFJ to provide even token recognition, that even if financial support couldn’t be offered for equipment, referees and transportation – and face it, varsity sports funding has been in decline for decades and not about to increase any time soon. Without saying so directly, Laurent made it quite clear that for the league to gain USFJ command support, the need must be demonstrated from the rank and file, teams, players and coaches.
That goes back to commitment, on a number of levels.
Commitment by each team to engage in their respective MWR, community services and force support outlets, requesting their assistance for any number of things and offering to work hand-in-hand with them to make things work. Even if all they can provide is a couple of goal-post cushions here, a new down box there and if they’re years away from receiving full financial support.
Commitment by teams to engage their respective bases’ leaderships. Starting with inviting them to preside over pre-game coin tosses.
Commitment by teams to engage their local base public affairs functions and AFN to market their on-field product, letting them know when games take place and where. And to keep doing so even if those functions don’t respond at first.
Commitment by teams to honor their schedule, to work hand-in-hand with opposing teams when a scheduling conflict occurs.
Commitment by teams to ensure their respective officials associations possess copies of and know the league by-laws inside and out. Commitment by the officials associations to ensure that each game is refereed consistently with the rules applied the same way no matter where games occur.
Commitment by teams to put a polished product on the field. Ensuring that sufficient numbers turn out for practice to make the offense and defense function as they should on game day, and not have four or five show up for practice, then 50 come on game day all expecting to play.
And commitment not just for the teams to look out for themselves, but to take the long view and do things with the league as a whole in mind.
It will take time and effort. Nothing like that comes overnight. It may take years of frustration and some may give up because of perceived lack of progress. The sort of things the teams and league are seeking is sort of like what you get when you visit the deli man cutting bologna, one slice at a time.
***
A few on-field modest proposals for teams to make their engines purr just a bit better:
Yokota needs to put two good halves of football together. The Warriors, with veteran Darone Frierson under center, appear to be one team that can consistently run a spread offense with the proper expectation realized. Frierson was 13-for-20 for 203 yards and five touchdowns in the first half of Saturday’s 33-6 romp over Misawa, but the offense went silent in the second half, which the Jets won 6-0. Consistency is the key.
Kadena could generate more firepower by getting receiver Devon Cheatham more involved in the offense. He’s the tallest player in the South Division and Cheatham, who played college ball, gave Hansen secondary types fits in the Dragons’ final drive in the Wolfpack’s 8-2 May 5 home win.
Hansen and Misawa could each benefit from working on their ground games a tad more. Despite getting soundly punished by Yokota, particularly in the first half, the Jets showed some signs of life when they went to a full-house backfield in the fourth quarter and ran what my old high school coach called “tank” plays.
And any time your offense hasn’t generated more than 100 offensive yards in a game, as Hansen couldn’t May 5, it’s time to consider something a bit more basic, if for no other reason to keep the ball out of the opponents’ hands more.
***
Good to see Hansen traveling north to play at Yokota this coming Saturday. First inter-division game the league has played since the Torii Bowl last August, and the first in the regular season this year. Strongly recommend the Wolfpack work on their pass defense.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 19, 2013
Only two numbers change in this, the final regular-season Pacific high school soccer ratings. But as with all Far East tournaments, these listings could change dramatically depending on the results. Here we go:
Boys
1, Christian Academy Japan (6-0-1).
2, Kadena, Okinawa (10-4-4).
3, Seoul American (11-1-4).
4, Matthew C. Perry, Japan (20-6-3)
5, Zama American, Japan (13-6-0)
6, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan (14-6-3)
7, Taejon Christian International, South Korea (11-6-2)
8, Yongsan International-Seoul (8-4-4)
9, Seoul Foreign (11-8-3)
10, Kubasaki, Okinawa (7-7-4)
Girls
1, American School In Japan (11-0-2)
2, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan (18-1-1)
3, Seoul Foreign (16-1-2)
4, Yokota, Japan (13-2-3)
5, Kubasaki, Okinawa (4-3-2)
6, Osan American, South Korea (8-3-1)
7, Southern, Guam, (7-3-0)
8, Seoul American (6-4-2)
9, Kadena, Okinawa (5-4-3)
10, Matthew C. Perry, Japan (12-7-0)
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 12, 2013
OK, we’ve frequently gone down the list of possible Pacific high school track and field records that may be broken this season.
What about the Far East meet May 20-21 at Yokota? Let’s give it a look:
Boys
Shot put—43.011 feet, Gabriel Ahner, Kadena, 2011. Dead on arrival; Yokota’s Dylan Kessler has already thrown 44-8 this season. Possible mark: 44.10.
Discus—133.79 feet, Roland Cote, Zama American, 2012. Possible, but a long shot by Yokota’s Jesse Hogan. Possible mark: 130-6.
High jump—6 feet, 6 inches, Lotty Smith, Kadena, 2011. Possible by Yokota’s Donovan Ball, who’s posted 6-4¾ this season; it would make him the second to break the 2-meter mark in the Pacific. Possible mark: 6-5½.
Long jump—21 feet, 6 inches, Chaun Lynn, Nile C. Kinnick, 2010. Safe.
100—11.01, Andre Watson, Kubasaki, 2010. Dead on arrival, with Kubasaki’s Rahman Farnell and Jarrett Mitchell, Yokota’s Stanley Speed and Seoul American’s Ronald Dogan leading the charge. Possible time: 10.7.
110 hurdles—15.15, Fred Gustafsson, Yokota, 2012. On life support, as Kadena’s Derrick Taylor has already posted a sub-15 on Okinawa; Zama American’s Mitchell Harrison will also give chase. Possible time: 15.05.
200—22.66, Andre Watson, Kubasaki, 2010. Dead on arrival, with the aforementioned chasing. Possible time: 22.05.
300 hurdles—40.15, Fred Gustafsson, Yokota, 2012. Dead on arrival; Taylor has gone sub-40 on Okinawa this season. Possible time: 40.0.
400—51.02, Justin Smith, Kinnick, 2012. Dead on arrival; Okinawa Christian International’s Keishi Nambara posted 50.38 in the districts. Possible time: 50.20.
400 relay—44.01, Kadena, 2011. On life support; we’ve seen several sub 44.5s this season. Possible time: 43.80.
800—2:01.2, Tomas Sanchez, Kadena, 2010. Dead on arrival; Kubasaki’s Ryan Bugler has posted two sub-2:00s this season. Possible time: 1:56.5, which would also break the Pacific record (see earlier post).
1,600—Has never been run at Far East, but the foundation record will be hard to beat, thanks to Bugler and Erik Armes of Kubasaki, Kinnick’s Robert Beard, ASIJ’s Kai Layden, Yokota revelation Daniel Galvin and Kadena’s Andrew Kilkenny, Hunter Ficenec and Carlos Gutierrez. Possible time: 4:22:55, which would break Armes’ Pacific record of 4:25.88.
1,600 relay—3:30.59, Kinnick, 2012. Possible, but a long shot; OCSI ran 3:32.93 at districts. Possible time: 3:31.
3,200—Another foundation record will be set here. Possible time: 9:56.
3,200 relay—8:20.48, Zion Christian Academy, 2012. Safe.
Girls
Shot put—31.88 feet, Shannon Jackson, Kinnick, 2010. Dead on arrival; Zama’s Niyah Lewis and ASIJ’s Liz Thornton will put this out of reach. Possible mark: 32-6.
Discus—108.66 feet, Christian Garner, Zama, 2012. Safe.
High jump—5.12 feet, Arrianna Guerra, Zion, 2012. Dead on arrival; Kadena’s Jasmine Rhodes has already jumped 5-3. Possible mark: 5-4½.
Long jump—16.14 feet, Liz Thornton, ASIJ. On life support, with Thornton and Kinnick’s De’Asia Brown chasing. Possible mark: 16-3.
100—12.7, Kristy Taylor, Seoul American, 2010. Dead on arrival; Kadena’s Janika Caines, Zion’s Jade Cummings, Kinnick’s Val James and Kubasaki’s Kaelyn Francis giving chase. Possible time: 12.4.
100 hurdles—17.33, Stefani Loisel, Guam High, 2011. Dead on arrival; Kubasaki’s Danielle Balfour has already posted a 16.74. Possible time: 16.5.
200—26.07, Stefani Loisel, Guam High, 2012. Dead on arrival, Caines, Cummings, Thornton and Francis giving chase. Possible time: 25.1.
300 hurdles—46.97, Stefani Loisel, Guam High, 2012 (also the Pacific record). Safe.
400—59.17, Jenna Doyno, ASIJ, 2012. Dead on arrival; James has posted two sub-59s this season. Possible time: 57.9.
400 relay—49.17, Kadena, 2012 (also the Pacific record). Possible, but a long shot. Possible time: 50.2.
800—2:25.19, Amanda Henderson, Seoul American, 2012. Dead on arrival; Kinnick’s Cary Fontanez has run a sub-2:25 this season. Possible time: 2:23.8.
1,600—Another foundation record, with Kubasaki’s Jessica Ircink leading the charge. Possible time: 5:21.50, which would break Ircink’s Pacific record of 5:23.26.
1,600 relay—4:06.49, Kadena, 2012. On life support after Kinnick’s 4:07.37 in the Kanto Invitational. Possible time: 4:06.10.
3,200—Another foundation mark. Possible time: 11:45.60, which would break the Pacific record of 11:48.1.
3,200 relay—10:24.57, ASIJ, 2012. Dead on arrival; Kubasaki’s district finals time was nearly five seconds better. Possible time: 10:17.50.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 12, 2013
Far East is the next big stage at which the following Pacific track and field records may take a tumble. This is the final update prior to the Far East meet May 20-21 at Yokota:
Boys
High jump-- Lotty Smith, Kadena, 6 feet, 6 inches, 2011. Possible. Yokota’s Donovan Ball 6-4¾) is definitely in the neighbourhood. Possible jump: 6-6.
100 – Andre Watson, Kubasaki, 10.30, 2011. Remains on life support, with Seoul American’s Ronald Dogan and Darien Briggs, Osan American’s Marlon Cox, Kubasaki’s Rahman “Chima” Farnell and Jarrett Mitchell, Yokota’s Stanley Speed and Nile C. Kinnick’s LaTendre Paylor in pursuit. Possible time: 10.25.
200 – Kenny Elder, Yokota, 21.4, 1977, matched by Yokota’s Preston Brooks and Watson in 2011. Possible, by the aforementioned . Possible time: 21.80.
400 – Timmy Gardner, Yokota, 48.9, 1988. Possible; Keishi Nambara of OCSI ran 50.38 at Okinawa districts. Possible time: 50.20.
800 – Blake Bannister, Christian Academy Japan, 1:57.3, 2008. Remains on life support, with Kubasaki’s Ryan Bugler, with a PR of 1:58.52, leading the charge. Possible time: 1:56.9.
1,600 – Erik Armes, Kubasaki, 4:25.88, 2013. Dead on arrival. Armes, Bugler and Yokota’s Dan Galvin and Kinnick’s Robert Beard all have a shot. Possible time: 4:15.
3,200 – Roger Olson, CAJ, 9:31, 1974. On life support, and the aforementioned are all in the hunt. Possible time: 9:40.
110 hurdles – Eric Robinson, Kadena, 14.1, 2006. On life support, after Taylor’s 14.74 earlier this season. Possible time: 14.25.
300 hurdles – Randall O’Bannon, Kubasaki, 39.14, 2008. On life support, after Taylor’s 39.94 earlier this season. Possible time: 39.20.
400 relay – Kubasaki, 43.34, 2011. Possible, with Kubasaki, Yokota, Kinnick, Guam High, Kadena and others leading the charge. Possible time: 43.70.
1,600 relay – Kadena, 3:24.6, 2004. Safe.
3,200 relay – Singapore American, 8:13.6, 1991. Safe.
Girls
100– Jackie Richards, Kubasaki, 11.5, 2001. Safe.
200 – Lorianne Roxas, Kubasaki, 25.03, 2003. On life support, with Kadena’s Janika Caines, Kubasaki’s Kaelyn Francis and Zion Christian Academy’s Jade Cummings trying. Possible time: 24.90.
400 – Jenny Melson, Singapore American, 57.20, 2001. On life support; Kinnick’s Val James posted a 58.32 this season. Possible time: 57.50.
800 – Nylin, Yokohama International, 2:19.4, 1996. Possible, though a long shot. Kinnick’s Carydaliz Fontanez has the best chance, with Kubasaki’s Allie Reichenberg and Jessica Ircink, Kadena’s Ana Hernandez and others following closely. Possible time: 2:21.
1,600 – Siarria Ingram, Jessica Ircink, Kubasaki, 5:23.26. Dead on arrival. Ircink will likely rebreak her own record. Possible time: 5:22.50.
3,200 – Sakuma, Seisen International, 11:48.1, 2004. On life support, with that whole gang giving chase; Reichenberg posted a 11:51.96 at districts. Possible time: 11:50.40.
100 hurdles – Serafina Smith, Kubasaki, 15.2, 2004. Safe.
300 hurdles – Stefani Loisel, Guam High, 46.97, 2012. Safe.
400 relay – Kadena, 49.17, 2012. Possible, with Kinnick and Kadena giving chase. Possible time: 49.50.
1,600 relay – Kadena, 4:06.49, 2012. On life support, following Kinnick’s 4:07.37 at the Kanto Invitational. Possible time: 4:06.55.
Does Sports Blog Nation have any other ideas? Somebody out there I didn’t mention? Let me hear it! Be true to your school, but remember, you’ve entered THE “No-Hate” Zone.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 12, 2013
Precious little movement up and down in the ratings, now that the Okinawa district titles have been settled. There could be some major movement in advance of Far East depending on what happens Thursday when Yokota visits ASIJ’s Mustang Valley.
Boys
1, Christian Academy Japan (6-0-1).
2, Kadena, Okinawa (10-4-4).
3, Seoul American (11-1-4).
4, Matthew C. Perry, Japan (20-6-3)
5, Zama American, Japan (13-6-0)
6, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan (14-6-3)
7, Taejon Christian International, South Korea (11-6-2)
8, Yongsan International-Seoul (8-4-4)
9, Seoul Foreign (11-8-3)
10, Kubasaki, Okinawa (7-7-4)
Girls
1, American School In Japan (10-0-1)
2, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan (18-1-1)
3, Seoul Foreign (16-1-2)
4, Yokota, Japan (13-1-3)
5, Kubasaki, Okinawa (4-3-2)
6, Osan American, South Korea (8-3-1)
7, Southern, Guam, (7-3-0)
8, Seoul American (6-4-2)
9, Kadena, Okinawa (5-4-3)
10, Matthew C. Perry, Japan (12-7-0)
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 12, 2013
After a convincing doubleheader sweep of Kinnick, ASIJ remains firmly entrenched atop this group, which pretty much remains the same as last week.
1, American School In Japan
2, Kubasaki, Okinawa
3, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan
4, Yokota, Japan
5, Osan American, South Korea
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 12, 2013
The points margin between Nos. 1 and 2 remains rather wide; Seoul American breaks tie for fifth by capturing DODDS Korea regular-season title.
1, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan
2, Kadena, Okinawa
3, Zama American, Japan
4, Kubasaki, Okinawa
5, Seoul American, South Korea
Dropped out: Daegu High.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 12, 2013
Kind of a bland Kanto Invitational, with just six girls and five boys teams and only one league record set. Bottom two teams trade places, margin between 1-3 still razor thin in the latest ratings.
1, Kubasaki, Okinawa
2, Kadena, Okinawa
3, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan
4, American School In Japan
5, Yokota, Japan
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 12, 2013
Gaku Lange overtakes Jacob Son for the region lead among boys, while Kaile Johnson widens her girls lead. Only a couple more regular-season matches to be played. Here they all are, and there are more following last week's action, and with the players' divisions marked in parentheses next to their goal totals:
Boys
Gaku Lange, Matthew C. Perry, 38 (II)
Jacob Son, Gyeonggi Suwon International, 36 (II)
Paul Bin, Taejon Christian International, 23 (I)
Zach Yoder, Nile C. Kinnick, 22 (I)
David Voelker, Seoul American, 22 (I)
Yuji Callahan, Kadena, 19 (I)
David Nam, Seoul International, 19 (II)
Derek Stevenson, Zama American, 18 (II)
Aaron Russ, Nile C. Kinnick, 14 (I)
Steven Ball, E.J. King, 13 (II)
Imani Washington, Kubasaki, 13 (I)
JoJo Byrnes, Zama American, 12 (II)
Justin Hill, Matthew C. Perry, 12 (II)
Shin Ikeda, Yongsan International-Seoul, 10 (I)
Tyrone Boylan, Kadena, 10 (I)
Kai Stallings, Kubasaki, 10 (I)
Sam Ban, Yongsan International-Seoul, 10 (I)
Girls
Kaile Johnson, Nile C. Kinnick, 33 (I)
Courtney Beall, Matthew C. Perry, 23 (II)
Joyce Kim, Taejon Christian International, 22 (I)
Ebony Madrid, Osan American, 21 (II)
Katey Helwick, American School In Japan, 20 (I)
Michelle Richardson, Seoul Foreign, 17 (I)
Athena Peerson, Nile C. Kinnick, 16 (I)
Emily Birmingham, Yongsan International-Seoul, 12 (I)
Sam Herritt, Matthew C. Perry, 12 (II)
Marissa Mesquita, Kubasaki, 11 (I)
Kyandra Lane, Matthew C. Perry, 10 (II)
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 11, 2013
Far East Division II baseball and girls soccer tournaments will go on minus Daegu's teams. The teams withdrew from the tournaments, the girls two weeks ago and the boys earlier this week, citing primarily injuries that left each team with eight healthy players, too few to field teams, according to athletics director Ken Walter.
The D-II soccer tournament is scheduled for May 20-23 at Misawa Air Base, Japan, and will feature just seven teams instead of the eight it had originally. It will feature a single round robin followed by modified single-elimination play with consolation. Same holds true for the baseball, slated for May 23-25 at Naval Air Facility Atsugi; five teams will participate, instead of the original six.
Each Daegu team began the season with about 14 players, at a school with an enrollment of about 150 having to support boys and girls soccer, track and field, baseball and softball. “They felt it wasn’t worth going with just eight players,” Walter said. “The last two years, it’s been tough to fill that many sports. It’s frustrating for an AD.”
In addition to injuries, families of baseball players had already made plans for Memorial Day weekend travel prior to the Far East D-II baseball being moved from May 20-22 to later in the week.
Zama American was originally supposed to host both D-II and Division I baseball, but only had one field available, Atsugi’s Bandy Field. In addition, there was not enough billeting to house baseball and softball tournaments concurrently at Atsugi; D-I and D-II softball are scheduled for May 20-22 at Atsugi’s MacArthur and Ranger Fields.
Yokota, which is hosting Far East track May 20-21, agreed to host D-I baseball but only after the track was done, so billeting wouldn’t be overtaxed. Zama then pushed back the dates of the D-II baseball to May 23-25, softball’s departure freeing up billeting for baseball players.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 9, 2013
A couple of months late, but better than never.
Sometimes, the PCS plane or an intra-area transfer blesses the gaining teams with the final pieces of the puzzle needed in the drive for a Far East basketball tournament title.
In Zama American’s boys and Nile C. Kinnick’s girls cases, it was a pair of sophomores, Trojans swingman Andrae Adams and Red Devils point guard Alyshia Allison, who provided that final boost, and ended lengthy Far East title droughts in the process.
For their efforts, Adams and Allison have been named Stars and Stripes Pacific high school winter sports season Athletes of the Quarter.
Adams averaged 15 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, as well as adding a healthy dose of playmaking and finishing spark to a Trojans team that needed to replace the scoring and rebounding of departed star Mike Duncan.
After transferring from American School In Japan, Adams fit into the Zama starting lineup like a hand in glove, helping the Trojans to a 22-5 win-loss record including a 15-game in-season winning streak. And Zama also won the Far East Division II Tournament title on its home turf, the Trojans’ first such championship since the 1962-63 season – a 50-year gap.
Zama started slowly at 2-3, but after losing at Robert D. Edgren in December, the Trojans reeled off that 15-game skein, the school’s best since the 2006-07 team set a school record by opening 34-0. The 2012-13 final record was a 7½-game improvement over the team’s 17-15 ledger the previous season.
“He made a big difference,” said Trojans coach Parish Jones. While Duncan “was that guy last year, we needed somebody to come in and create and make something happen. He (Adams) was the last piece of the puzzle.”
So, too, was Allison, who provided the needed ballhandling and playmaking to take the pressure off fellow sophomore shooting guard De’Asia Brown, who in her freshman season faced endless box-and-one defenses designed to shut her down.
And the transfer from Munford (Tenn.) High with AAU experience was the last puzzle piece coach Samuel Williams needed to solve the Red Devils’ chief nemesis, ASIJ, whom the Red Devils had not beaten during his two seasons – until when it counted most, the Far East Division I Tournament.
In a two-game final, Kinnick fell in the first game to the Mustangs 57-53 in overtime before prevailing 45-32 in the second and deciding game.
Allison averaged 14.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5 steals and 7.5 assists in her first season at Kinnick. The Red Devils went 23-3 overall – all three losses to ASIJ – and captured the DODDS Japan tournament title at Edgren prior to ending their 12-year Far East D-I title drought.
“Alyshia was such a tremendous difference maker, not only because she’s a pure point guard, but is also a tenacious and terrific defender,” Williams said. “Her ability to intelligently pressure the ball, make steals and outrebound other guards is one that is far in advance of her 10th-grade year.”
Congratulations to the Athletes of the Quarter.
-- COACHES OF THE QUARTER/MOST IMPROVED TEAMS: This honor shared by current and former Trojans. Jones gets the honor on the hardwood for developing Zama’s first boys basketball champion in a half-century. Meanwhile, Ron Geist of Kubasaki – who used to coach football and soccer at Zama – and his assistant Justin Cook put the final touches on a three-year plan to return the Dragons to Far East tournament title prominence, extending the program’s Pacific-record title haul to 23.
-- TEAM OF THE QUARTER: Speaking of long title droughts, tournament Most Valuable Player Henry Wallrapp and ASIJ’s boys outscored Father Duenas Memorial 15-3 in the fourth quarter of their 61-49 triumph over the Friars in the Far East Boys Division I Tournament, ending the Mustangs’ 30-year title drought.
-- PROGRAM OF THE QUARTER/MOST IMPROVED PROGRAM: Zama’s wrestling team also captured the Far East D-II team banners, and the Trojans are clearly in the running for Far East most improved program and program of the year, with five total D-II banners on the gym wall just this school year and the Trojans chasing five more this spring.
-- BASKETBALL PLAYERS OF THE QUARTER: In addition to Adams, Allison and Wallrapp, Tara Long earned MVP honors for E.J. King’s girls, who posted the Cobras’ best D-II Tournament finish since winning the third of their three titles in 1997. Sheik Carino was named boys D-II Tournament MVP for St. Paul Christian of Guam, which lost the tournament final 28-25 to Zama.
-- WRESTLER OF THE QUARTER: A seasoned veteran of the stateside wars, junior Kalik Battle, coming off a bronze-medal finish in the 2012 North Dakota state finals took it two steps further in Yokota blue and gold. He earned Outstanding Wrestler honors in capturing the Far East meet 135-pound weight class gold, went 32-0, gave up 12 technical points and lost nary one period the entire season. He was also named Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools tournament Outstanding Wrestler.
-- WRESTLING BOUT OF THE QUARTER: It seemed as if the Far East 108-pound gold-medal bout between Kubasaki’s Daniel Mora and former Far East champion Justin Duenas of Kadena would stretch on forever … literally. Mora eked out a three-period decision over Duenas (2-4, 4-2, 3-2) that came down almost to the very last move, and required a 13-minute video review to confirm. Had Mora not won that bout, Kubasaki would have lost the individual freestyle portion of the tournament to Kinnick.
-- WRESTLING MOVES OF THE QUARTER: Kinnick’s Marvin Newbins executed a breathtaking five-point throw on E.J. King’s Thomas McGrath en route to a technical fall in the first round of January’s Nile C. Kinnick Invitational “Beast of the Far East” Tournament at Yokosuka. Alas, Newbins lost in the quarterfinals, but that throw had all heads turning. Micah Lopez of Father Duenas Memorial executed a similar throw on Kadena’s James Alexander en route to a superior decision in the dual-meet portion of February’s Rumble on the Rock at Kubasaki.
-- BASKETBALL GAME/PERFORMANCE OF THE QUARTER: Call him a late Bloomer … literally. Hanan Bloomer came off the bench and shot perfect basketball, 5-for-5 from the field with three three-point goals and 2-for-2 from the foul line as ASIJ’s boys routed Zama 68-45 on Feb. 13 at Mustang Valley. The Trojans were without Adams, who injured his thumb in the DODDS Japan tournament. Neither team would lose again the rest of the season en route to their respective Far East tournament titles.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 7, 2013
Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer gazes at this week’s sports schedule bereft of any weekday games, and can’t help but feel that on this night, a Tuesday, he should be getting results of at least six games, but won’t:
DISCLAIMER: I’ve only been an avid watcher of Pacific high school track for 11 seasons, so I can’t speak much for what came before 2003, except on paper where the region’s records are concerned.
But last Saturday at Okinawa’s Koza Athletics Park was the poster-child example of how in those 11 years, I had never seen such a confluence of talent, the stars aligning over so many good teams and so many great, talented athletes in one group, ever.
No fewer than 13 Okinawa Activities Council district records were broken in Saturday’s 24th district meet, one of them a Pacific record. That’s nearly half of the 32 events on the books. As many as five athletes on Okinawa alone are poised to break, or at least home in on, Pacific marks at the Far East meet later this month at Yokota, a great all-weather track.
If we get conditions like we did on Saturday, overcast skies, temperatures in the 70s with just a light breeze (until later in the day) at Yokota’s Bonk Field, we should do quite well at Far East.
Jessica Ircink had been slicing two to three seconds off her personal bests every week from the start of the season, and breached the 5:24 barrier in the 1,600 on Saturday, clocking 5:23.26. That bettered the old Pacific record of 5:24.28 set in 2010 by Seoul American’s Siarria Ingram, and utterly destroyed the 0ld district mark of 5:37.
That was the piece de resistance, however.
The table for what I called repeatedly throughout the event, “Demolition Day at Districts,” was set by the 3,200 runners, Allie Reichenberg, Ircink’s Kubasaki teammate, who crushed the district 3,200 record by just over 12 seconds and coming within four seconds of the Pacific mark. Kubasaki sophomore Erik Armes followed, breaching the 10-minute barrier with a 9:59.16.
Despite his left leg cramping up in the late stages, Armes later demolished the boys 1,600 district record by almost 16 seconds. And the Dragons’ girls 3,200 relay team took a keg of dynamite to that district record, by nearly 22 seconds.
Record breaking wasn’t the sole province of Kubasaki, which swept the team titles by thin margins over Kadena’s boys and girls.
Panthers relay teams had a field day, beating the boys 3,200 record and the girls 400 and 1,600 marks. Jade Cummings of Zion Christian Academy beat her own 200 record.
Keishi Nambara of Okinawa Christian School International beat the boys 400 record and helped the Crusaders set a new 1,600 relay standard. A district field mark was broken when Kadena’s Jasmine Rhodes leaped 5 feet, 3 inches in the high jump.
Now, throw in the uber-talented Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools athletes. That super group of Yokota boys which swept every event except the hurdles in the Kanto finals on April 27. Those distance runners from Kinnick (Robert Beard, Carydaliz Fontanez) and Yokota (Daniel Galvin, Sam Arnold). That hurdles dual between Zama American’s Mitchell Harrison and Kadena’s Derrick Taylor. Val James of Kinnick going up against Cummings and Kadena’s Janika Caines. Not to mention sprinters Ronald Dogan and Darien Briggs of Seoul American and Marlon Cox of Osan American. Throwers Niyah Lewis of Zama and American School In Japan’s Liz Thornton.
As teams, Kubasaki’s, Kadena’s and ASIJ’s great balance, Yokota’s boys and Kinnick’s girls, will all go at it, hammer and tongs, in what several athletes have said will be an “amazing” Far East meet.
***
As mentioned earlier, almost all regular-season activity has come to an end, with only a handful of games remaining, along with the best-of-three district championships this weekend in Okinawa baseball and softball.
Armed and dangerous with the likes of left-hander Renton Poole and right-hander Tommy Warren, Kubasaki’s boys take a perfect record against Justin Sego, Ryan Marshall, Cody Prince and Dominnic Shea and Kadena into the district baseball finals. Game 1 is at 5 p.m. Friday at Kadena Air Base’s Four Diamonds Complex, with Games 2 and 3, the latter if needed, at 9 a.m. and noon on Saturday at Camp Foster Field 4.
Then you have Kadena’s Fab Freshmen, Bailey Prince, Morgan Beecher, Asia Abdul and Carissa Baldwin, and the rest of the Panthers who went 5-2 against their Dragons rivals this season. The reigning top two teams from last year’s Far East tournament square off at 5 p.m. Friday in Game 1 at Foster Field 2, followed by Saturday’s Games 2 and 3, if needed, at 9 a.m. and noon at Ryukyu Middle School’s clovered field.
***
A shame, really, that there won’t be any outside teams attending this Saturday’s Kanto Invitational track and field meet, sort of a Far East dress rehearsal, also at Bonk Field. Just your usual suspects from the Kanto Plain, but a good chance to see athletes I’ve not seen in two months, who are primed and ready to give it their all at Far East.
Teams that have attended the Kanto Invitational in the past, Kadena and Kubasaki, requested but were denied travel by administration, citing the fact that the meet lies right in the middle of the two-week Advanced Placement testing period, with the emphasis on study. Seoul American won’t be there, either; the DODDS Korea district this school year has apparently implemented a policy that denies district high schools permission to travel during the regular season, the rationale being that students already miss enough school due to Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference and DODDS Korea scheduled games.
A modest proposal to the Kanto and Okinawa track elders: It may be time to visit the possibility of flipping the Kanto Invitational with the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools finals, hold the former the last week of April – which would make the Kanto Invitational a Far East qualifier, really amp up its meaning and create a true Far East dress rehearsal – and move the Kanto finals to the first Saturday in May.
That would really provide an incentive for out-of-area teams to request travel weeks and months in advance. Athletes would get to compete against more of the folks they’d see in May at Far East. And the Kanto Invitational wouldn’t collide with AP tests, which would give administration at outside schools one less reason to say no.
And that would put the Kanto finals on a par with the Okinawa district meet, a district championship but a non-Far East qualifying meet.
With all the Far East qualifying complete and ticketing done, and no outside teams attending, both the Kanto Invitational and Saturday’s Far East warmup meet at Kubasaki hold very little meaning or luster. I won’t hold my breath waiting for a Pacific record to come out of either meet. Folks are going to want to reserve their best for Far East May 20-21 at Yokota.
***
Then, there’s the battle to determine the Okinawa Activities Council district girls soccer champion. Or to see if the fourth encounter this season between Kubasaki and Kadena will result in something other than a tie.
The teams drew 1-1 in a preseason scrimmage on March 13, then 2-2 on March 27 and 0-0 on April 26 in the first two of three regular-season matches.
They meet again on Friday at Kubasaki’s Mike Petty Stadium, with kickoff at 5 p.m. I’m told that this match will result in a winner and district champion; they’ll use the same rules they’ll use at the Far East tournament for playoff matches.
If the match is level after full time, they’ll play two 10-minute sessions of extra time, with no golden goal in play. If the match is still level after extra time, they’ll go to penalty kicks to determine the winner.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 7, 2013
On Wednesday, the athletics directors of DODDS Pacific’s 12 high schools will convene via video technology conference with Far East athletics coordinator Don Hobbs, as they do every couple of months, to discuss the issues of the day.
A couple of things I hope are discussed at the VTC, which could lead to a level playing field on all Pacific baseball and softball diamonds and to keep the football season schedule we had in 2012 intact:
-- DIAMOND DOINGS: It’s become clear over the course of the past few seasons, especially this one, that there are as many rules regarding time and run limits in Pacific high school softball as there are districts, and there are as many interpretations of same as there are umpires.
Run limits, or “mercy rules” as they are sometimes called, vary from district to district. I’ve seen one’s set-up call for a game to be terminated when a team leads by 20 runs after three innings, 15 after four and 10 after five. Others say 15 after three and 10 after five.
As to time limits, those vary even more. Some base schools play to 90-minute time limits. Others play two hours. One district, the Kanto Plain, and its United Services for Japan Officials Association, has no time limit written into its contract this season.
The latter almost created a major logjam during the March 15-16 inter-area baseball and softball games played between Kanto and Okinawa teams. A softball game almost went three hours, and when questioned, the plate umpire revealed there was no time limit written into the contract.
The event organizer, Yokota athletics director Tim Pujol, intervened and told the umpire the games were not to exceed 90 minutes, unless the inning in progress needed to be finished or the game went into extra innings.
One district, DODDS Korea, which enforces a two-hour time limit, had a sort of unwritten gentleman’s agreement between coaches and umpires that if the game in progress had reached the 1-hour, 55-minute mark at the end of an inning, a new inning could not start and the game thus terminated. Some stateside districts apparently do this.
That apparently did not happen in a game Saturday at Osan, when a new inning began with four minutes left on the clock and Seoul American winning 6-5. The host Cougars scored twice and won the game 7-6, leaving at least one Falcons coach and player to ask me, the former by e-mail and the latter by Facebook, what’s up with that.
This is an outgrowth of a problem that's hit epidemic proportions: The by-laws that should be written between districts and their contracted umpiring associations either don't exist or are very vague in their interpretations, and umpires enforce what by-laws and rules do exist in varying ways, ranging from doing everything by the book to "let's do it the way we did back where I came from," insert name of state where he umpired.
For the Far East tournaments later this month, organizers have implemented five-inning/90-minute limits for all games except the championship. No matter what the National Federation of State High School Associations rules or a particular league’s by-laws say, the director in any tournament has final say in scheduling and format, with Hobbs’ approval.
It’s time for the Pacific’s ADs to standardize the rules for EVERY DODDS Pacific baseball and softball entity for the regular season and every in-season tournament, including Far East (excepting games hosted by American School In Japan and St. Mary’s International of the Kanto Plain, and even they should follow those rules since they play at Far East):
-- Cap all games at two hours.
-- If the home team is winning with the visiting team batting in the top half of an inning or the home team batting in the bottom half and time expires, the game ends immediately.
-- If the visiting team is winning with the visiting or home team batting and time expires, the game continues until the inning is complete.
-- If the game is tied and time expires, the game continues until a winner is declared; clock doesn’t matter.
-- Under no circumstances should a game ever end in a tie.
-- If a game enters extra innings, the batter who made the last out for each team the previous inning begins the new inning as a runner at second base. Better chance for said game to end sooner rather than later.
-- For regular-season games, coaches and umpires should not be given the latitude to determine which team is home via coin toss or other means, with the exception of when teams are playing on neutral sites. If Osan and Seoul American are visiting Daegu High, then the Warriors are the home team. Osan and Seoul, playing on a neutral field, determine which team is home via coin toss.
-- Ensure that all ADs pass these rules, and all others, to their coaches and umpiring associations, and post these rules in the PAIAP Manual which governs Far East high school athletics.
***
-- FIGHT FOR FOOTBALL: Word filtering in says the Far East football schedule for next fall will hardly resemble the one from 2012, which featured all Division I and Division II teams playing each other at least once during what was the finest Pacific high school football season ever. Every last game meant something, wire to wire.
The reasons: Money is tough and times are hard, and everybody is being tasked with looking at where costs can be trimmed; makes me think we should be glad that there’s a football season at all in 2013.
But the amount of games will be trimmed significantly. Osan American, whose enrollment will be cut in half with the opening of Humphreys High down the street, will field a junior varsity team in 2013, as will Humphreys, leaving only Daegu and Seoul as varsity teams in Korea.
Interdistrict games between Kadena and Kubasaki of Okinawa and Daegu, I’m told, are going off the board. Zama American and Robert D. Edgren of Japan will lose their annual D-II home-and-home qualifiers with Osan.
Japan teams will still get plenty of games, since there are five full-fledged varsity teams there, Division I Yokota and Nile C. Kinnick, American School In Japan and Division II Zama and Edgren. The D-I and D-II schools play each other twice and cross interdivision once each. Yokota and Kinnick also play ASIJ twice and Seoul, Kadena and Kubasaki once each for a total of nine games each. Zama and Edgren play each other twice, cross interdivision once each and also play ASIJ twice each and Daegu once each. That’s seven games for each team.
Guam High is also not affected by this proposed new schedule, since it doesn’t participate in the Far East playoff system and has a commitment to its own seven-team Interscholastic Football League, featuring a six-game regular season and three-tiered playoff, starting in August and running deep into October.
But Korea and Okinawa? Ugh! Back to where they were some years ago when they’d play as few as four varsity games per season, with parents being asked to fund trips to far-flung locales such as Singapore.
Taking into account only DODDS-funded games, Kadena and Kubasaki play each other twice, plus one game each with Yokota, Kinnick and Seoul. Five games. Seoul plays Yokota, Kinnick, Kadena and Kubasaki once each and Daegu twice. Six games. Daegu gets Seoul twice and Zama and Edgren once each. FOUR games.
This, after football had been asked to cut their travel rosters by 20 percent, from 25 to 20 players, and coaching staffs by 33 percent by trimming one of two assistants.
You can pretty much bet the house that this is going to be a hot-button topic at the VTC. And a few coaches might end up turning their backs on their teams and the game if this plan is carried out.
The ADs and Hobbs can alleviate this by restoring the Daegu-Seoul-Kadena-Kubasaki games to the schedule rotation, IF and that’s a big IF the funding can somehow be found for them. That would put Korea’s and Okinawa’s schedule back on a par with the other football-playing districts in the Pacific. There should be no reason on Earth that Yokota plays nine games and Daegu only four.
***
On the flip side of this coin, those who feel football was favored over other sports which saw their Far East tournaments cut by up to two days and their teams slashed by one player each might be on their tippy-toes cheering wildly for this to come to pass.
Those who don’t have a dog in the fight but insisted that the 2012 football plan was a blatant case of fraud, waste and abuse, one who felt it was a giant overreach from the way football was done “back in my day,” might also be cheering.
Trust: If this revamped schedule minus the Korea vs. Okinawa rotation comes to pass, it will cause more problems than it will solve, starting with giving young men, most of whom are living overseas for the first time, that much less incentive to play football, especially on Okinawa and Korea, and give them more reason to be out on the streets looking for trouble, or in front of the computer playing video games, scarfing pizza and soda and contributing to the rampant obesity problem. And escalating from there.
I like what Michael Thompson, Okinawa's new district superintendent, has to say on the subject: "We should do things based on kids, instead of costs." Yes, athletics costs money. The cost of further cutting what our kids have come to count on, could be even higher.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 6, 2013
First off, why was there no “things learned, observed in USFJ-AFL Week 2.0?”
Turns out, no games were played during Week 2 of the season.
Camps Hansen and Foster were scheduled to play on April 27 at Kadena Air Base’s Ryukyu Middle School; turns out the field was not available and the game couldn’t be rescheduled in time. The tentative makeup date is May 29.
Yokota was also due to travel to Misawa, but transportation arrangements fell through at the last minute and new commissioner Joe Howell ordered the game forfeited to Misawa.
Now, onto Week 3:
If you look at the numbers from Sunday’s game at the Camp Hansen parade deck, one would think Kadena would have easily handled the Wolfpack.
So, how was it that Hansen held the Dragons to nary a single offensive point and somehow scrounged out an 8-2 victory?
Defense, defense, defense and defense, in no particular order.
Hansen pass rushers forced five quarterback sacks, two each by Norris Avery and Christopher Jones. They picked off Dragons quarterback Dishon Harvey three times, twice by Andrew Brown which killed potential Kadena scoring drives. Jones, Damian Wright and Seth Newsome corralled Harvey in the end zone for a safety.
And quarterback Dustin Moore did just enough on offense, gaining 35 yards on five carries after that safety, including an 8-yard touchdown run with 5:57 left in the third period.
That was enough to overcome a Hansen special-teams miscue, when a punt snap sailed over the head of Wolfpack punter Reece Ritter out of the end zone.
Prior to that, talk around the field centered around the possibility of the game going into overtime scoreless. Following the first safety, talk revolved around the possibility that a 2-0 score could probably stand, making for the lowest-scoring game in the 14-season history of the league in its current form.
Pretty amazing that Hansen could pull this off when its offense didn’t complete one trip down the field, gaining just 82 yards and recording just five first downs on 52 plays.
Kadena possessed the ball for far longer, for 73 plays, and racked up 202 yards and 14 first downs, led by Okinawa Football League veteran Emanuel Griffin’s 108 yards on 21 attempts. The Dragons ventured into Hansen territory five times and into the red zone twice, getting as far as the Wolfpack 3-yard line before Early Neal’s last-second interception killed Kadena’s last-ditch drive.
***
All that took place in a game that lasted nearly three hours, interrupted 22 times by penalties totaling 140 yards.
All those penalties (plus a couple refused by the opposing teams). A combined six turnovers and six sacks.
It’s all about execution, or the lack thereof. Goes back to a theme I keep harping on: Players aren’t hired to play football, they’re hired to defend the country, many with family commitments as well as duty, and not attending as many practices as they should (mostly through no fault of their own), and being asked to run intricate, complicated offenses such as the Spread, Read-Option and West Coast that U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League teams have no business running.
Executing plays means running them again and again and again in practice, running them until they do the plays right, then running them a few more times to ensure they become second nature. In those three offenses, quarterbacks are required to not just lock onto a receiver and lead him properly, but read the open field, see FOUR or FIVE receivers and figure out which one stands the best chance of making a play. Not to mention linemen keeping edge pass rushers and linebackers off the QB’s back. And running backs deciding whether to continue to the hole assigned on the play, or bounce outside if necessary.
There’s a reason why Yokosuka won six USFJ-AFL Torii Bowl championship games in the 2000s: They stayed within themselves and stuck with an offense as basic and old as the game itself: Smashmouth, full-house backfields, seven linemen plowing the road, 2 back to the 4 hole, 4 back to the 5 hole, 3 back dive straight ahead, pass for effect. It was as boring as watching paint dry, but it was as effective as Alabama’s wishbone was in the 1970s. Nothing fancy. Pressure. Ram the ball down the other team’s throat.
It’s not quite as sexy, for sure, as a well-run Spread, Read-Option or West Coast. But when teams aren’t equipped to run those offenses – and no teams in South Division are, as the first two games proved so eloquently – they should try what worked for the North’s signature team of last decade.
***
We’d thought the South Division had finally found a home with Ryukyu Middle School’s turfed field, where Sunday’s game was originally scheduled. Turns out, the field was reserved over the weekend for an Okinawa Activities Council high school junior-varsity soccer tournament. Hopefully, availability of that field won’t be an issue later this spring, especially after school lets out. While it’s great that the parade deck was available and a game could be played, it’s not a football field. No goalposts and it slopes up the north and down to the south. Far from level, too. Good thing no serious leg injuries occurred.
***
Speaking of the Seahawks, they’d been stuck in the throes of a three-plus season, 15-game losing streak, including the playoffs, dating back to May 15, 2010, before rallying from a 14-0 deficit on Saturday to beat defending champion Yokota 24-22 in an exciting, last-minute outcome at Yokota High School’s Bonk Field.
And longtime Yokosuka coach James Price may have found him a weapon under center. Jamaal Moore accounted for all three of the Seahawks’ offensive touchdowns, including a pair of scoring passes to Christian McGee and a 10-yard touchdown run that got the Seahawks on the scoreboard.
These are good times for Price, who for the past three seasons has had to cobble a team together each week with whatever resources were available. Most times, he’d be short some players one week because they’re out at sea, and when those players became available, others might not be. On Saturday, he had his full team together for the first time since playing Hansen last year, and Price expressed hope that this would be the rule, rather than the exception this season.
And the Seahawks won this contest on the road; until recently, visiting teams always had trouble when hitting the road for games, particularly in the North, where teams are not collocated.
***
A couple of behavioral issues occurred over the weekend that need to be addressed:
-- Howell said the league “dodged a bullet” after a near-fracas marred the final couple of minutes of the Yokota-Yokosuka game. He attended that contest, in which some pushing and shoving ensued after a punt return, and players and coaches from both benches came onto the field and pulled their own players back, preventing what could have become an ugly scene.
Howell on Monday said he viewed the game film and determined that no punishment was necessary, that no punches were thrown and most of what occurred revolved around players protecting their own. League bylaws state that players ejected for misconduct must sit out the rest of that game plus the next one; a player who throws a punch is suspended for the rest of the season.
Howell said he spoke with Price and Yokota coach Selwyn Jones and asked them to talk with their players the need to rein in such behavior. “We don’t want the black eye on the league,” Howell said. “We hope that’s the end of it.”
-- I didn’t keep official stats on this, but I’d imagine there were more F-bombs, MF-bombs, S-bombs and other types of –bombs dropped than there were yards gained in the Hansen-Kadena game, by both players and spectators.
Howell said he noticed the same thing at the Yokota-Yokosuka game, and says such things are utterly unnecessary and also needs to be reined in.
“We need to get a handle on that,” Howell said. “We want the league to be competitive, we want that competitive spirit. But we can have all that without the language.”
Women and children attend these games, too. Not an attractive thing. Let’s keep it clean.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 5, 2013
Jacob Son of Gyeonggi Suwon International has company atop the Pacific high school soccer goal-scoring leader board, as Matthew C. Perry's Gaku Lange joins him at No. 1 with 36 goals. Here they all are, and there are more following last week's action, and with the players' divisions marked in parentheses next to their goal totals:
Boys
Jacob Son, Gyeonggi Suwon International, 36 (II)
Gaku Lange, Matthew C. Perry, 36 (II)
Paul Bin, Taejon Christian International, 23 (I)
Zach Yoder, Nile C. Kinnick, 22 (I)
David Voelker, Seoul American, 20 (I)
Yuji Callahan, Kadena, 19 (I)
David Nam, Seoul International, 19 (II)
Derek Stevenson, Zama American, 18 (II)
Steven Ball, E.J. King, 13 (II)
Aaron Russ, Nile C. Kinnick, 13 (I)
Imani Washington, Kubasaki, 13 (I)
JoJo Byrnes, Zama American, 12 (II)
Imani Washington, Kubasaki, 10 (I)
Shin Ikeda, Yongsan International-Seoul, 10 (I)
Tyrone Boylan, Kadena, 10 (I)
Kai Stallings, Kubasaki, 10 (I)
Justin Hill, Matthew C. Perry, 10 (II)
Girls
Kaile Johnson, Nile C. Kinnick, 29 (I)
Courtney Beall, Matthew C. Perry, 23 (II)
Joyce Kim, Taejon Christian International, 22 (I)
Ebony Madrid, Osan American, 21 (II)
Katey Helwick, American School In Japan, 20 (I)
Michelle Richardson, Seoul Foreign, 17 (I)
Athena Peerson, Nile C. Kinnick, 13 (I)
Emily Birmingham, Yongsan International-Seoul, 12 (I)
Sam Herritt, Matthew C. Perry, 11 (II)
Kyandra Lane, Matthew C. Perry, 10 (II)
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 5, 2013
That record-setting Okinawa district meet is now in the books, and Kubasaki did everything to prove their fitness at No. 1. Kadena flip-flops spots with Kinnick, but the margin between 1-3 is still as thin as a crepe.
1, Kubasaki, Okinawa
2, Kadena, Okinawa
3, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan
4, Yokota, Japan
5, American School In Japan
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 5, 2013
The points lead between Nos. 1 and 2 is quite the large gap; two Korea teams tie at the bottom of this ladder.
1, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan
2, Kadena, Okinawa
3, Zama American, Japan
4, Kubasaki, Okinawa
5 (tie), Daegu High, Seoul American, South Korea
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 5, 2013
They do have that 4-3 loss to Yokota last week, but they still have the Pacific's finest overall body of work, those Mustangs.
1, American School In Japan
2, Kubasaki, Okinawa
3, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan
4, Yokota, Japan
5, Osan American, South Korea
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 5, 2013
No major movers or shakers this week, with only a handful of regular-season games remaining. A new No. 1 on the girls side. No movement on the boys side.
Boys
1, Christian Academy Japan (5-0-0).
2, Kadena, Okinawa (10-4-3).
3, Seoul American (10-1-4).
4, Matthew C. Perry, Japan (19-6-3)
5, Zama American, Japan (13-6-0)
6, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan (14-6-2)
7, Taejon Christian International, South Korea (11-6-2)
8, Yongsan International-Seoul (8-3-4)
9, Seoul Foreign (11-8-3)
10, Kubasaki, Okinawa (7-7-3)
Girls
1, American School In Japan (10-0-1)
2, Nile C. Kinnick, Japan (16-1-1)
3, Seoul Foreign (16-1-2)
4, Yokota, Japan (13-1-3)
5, Kubasaki, Okinawa (3-3-2)
6, Osan American, South Korea (8-3-1)
7, Southern, Guam, (9-0-0)
8, Seoul American (6-4-2)
9, Kadena, Okinawa (4-3-3)
10, Matthew C. Perry, Japan (12-7-0)
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 5, 2013
Turns out, there will only be seven teams in this month's Far East High School Girls Division II Soccer Tournament at Misawa Air Base, Japan.
According to athletics director Ken Walter, Daegu High has withdrawn from the tournament, citing injuries that left the team with as few as eight healthy players.
With there being three weeks between the regular season-ending Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference Five-Cities Division Tournament and Far East, there may be a chance that a few more players might be healthy enough to go, but not enough to field a team to play consistently over four days without risking further injury.
The Warriors finished 3-10-1 this season. Juniors Lari Robertson and Sarah Wright each led the Warriors with six goals.
That leaves Osan American and Yongsan International-Seoul of South Korea, and International School of the Sacred Heart, E.J. King, host Robert D. Edgren, reigning champion Matthew C. Perry and Zama American of Japan in the field.
Zama, too, has been beset by injuries and two weeks ago could only take eight players to play at Perry. Unless the Trojans can get more players healthy, they may suffer the same fate.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 5, 2013
Soccer enthusiasts of the youthful persuasion and their families on Okinawa, take note: Manchester United Soccer Schools Japan is conducting two three-day soccer camps on Okinawa, scheduled for Aug. 9-11 and Aug. 13-15, according to Okinawa Diplomats Youth Football Club president Chris Vaden.
The camps are for players aged 6 to 18, both boys and girls, limited to 96 total players. Cost of each camp session per child is 68,000 yen, or about $715 at current conversion rates. A presentation on the camps will be given at the Kadena High School auditorium for interested families.
Information available online here.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: May 2, 2013
Jesse Hogan is taking his football game to the next level.
The Yokota High School senior who played four years for the Panthers as a right tackle and nose guard has committed to Concordia College, an NCAA Division III school in Moorhead, Minn., which plays in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Cobbers went 8-2 last season.
Hogan had offers from Division I schools, “but chose D-III so he could play as a freshman,” his family said via Facebook message. He appears tagged to play offensive tackle and possibly move to defense, and earned a $35,150 grant-in-aid which covers most of the annual $39,974 cost (D-III colleges don't give athletic scholarships).
Hogan committing to Concordia ended a process that began in December when coaches called he and his family at “all hours of the day and night,” and centered on Concordia after their defensive coordinator Kyle Bakken contacted him.
He’s the third member of the Panthers senior-laden group to commit to college ball, joining Stanley Speed and Donavan Ball, who will play for Iowa-based colleges.
Hogan’s mother, Lacey, says she’s spoken with Bakken a couple of times and “every time, he tells me how excited the coaches are and how they can’t wait for Jesse to slip into a Concordia uniform and make the transition from Panther to Cobber. We are working with the team strength coach to ensure Jesse is 100 percent ready when he steps on the field.”
The message Hogan hopes this sends to other DODDS student-athlete prospects is “don’t quit” on your dreams, to remember that you are a student first and an athlete second, and that coaches are not just looking for star athletes, but star students as well. Hogan plans to study international business while at Concordia.
“He never dreamed of having this opportunity to play at the college level,” Lacey Hogan said. “He thought he was going to play in high school and then go to college, but now, he has been given an opportunity he never dreamed of.”
Among noted Concordia alumni are:
-- Gary Larsen, a former NFL defensive lineman with the Minnesota Vikings who appeared in three Super Bowls;
-- National Press Club president Alan Bjerga; and
-- Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent credited with saving Jacqueline Kennedy’s life during the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza.
