Pacific sports review 2000

By Dave Ornauer
Stars and Stripes

For every favorite that performed up to expectations on the Far East high school or interservice field of play in 2000, an upstart would rear its head and accomplish a shocking upset.

While Pacific Force of Okinawa and Yongsan of Korea dominated open invitationals on the softball diamonds and basketball courts, three defending champions met their doom in Marine Forces Pacific Regional tournaments on Okinawa.

Faith Academy’s powerhouse prep basketball teams from Manila and the Kubasaki Dragons’ wrestling dynasty from Okinawa ruled their respective Far East tournaments in February. Kadena’s Panthers of Okinawa also continued their Far East soccer tournament run of success.

But three Guam schools came away as first-time winners in Far East volleyball and cross country meets on the same day in November.

GI boxers Rick Roberts of Yokota Air Base and Kevin Palmer of Yokosuka Naval Base kept up their success at Japan’s shrine of boxing, Korakuen Hall, with Roberts unexpectedly flying all the way from Florida, where he’s now stationed, to defend his Japan lightweight title.

It was that type of year, a curious, exciting mix of the usual suspects keeping up their success and the unfamiliar delighting us with the unexpected. Let’s take a look back:

High school football

With a punishing ground game and a stingy defense, Darren Taylor, Jo-Jo Anthony, league MVP Mike Chamberlain and the Yokota Panthers resembled their dynasty years of the 1980s.

They rolled to a 9-1 record, their best in 11 years, winning the inaugural Department of Defense Education Activity Japan Football League title along with their 13th Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools championship in 20 years.

Yokota capped its campaign with a 3-0 victory Nov. 11 in Rising Sun Bowl II over the five-time Okinawa High School Athletic Association champion Kubasaki Samurai at Camp Zama, Japan.

It was a season of change in Japan. At the behest of DODEA-Japan district superintendent Mike Diekmann, the Matthew C. Perry Samurai of Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station and Robert D. Edgren Eagles of Misawa Air Base were made full-fledged members of the JFL.

Also, after years of being played under modified NCAA rules, the JFL and Kanto Plain made the switch to National Federation rules, which are used in every other high school league in the theater.

Kubasaki used a similarly tough ground attack, led by running backs Andre Johnson, Robert Harper and Russell Micho, to survive the most competitive OHSAA season in years.

The Samurai’s 20-game winning streak ended, but their title streak stayed intact. Reggie Williams of the 2-3 Kadena Islanders was named league MVP.

A diversified attack triggered by quarterback Erik Collins and versatile backs Randall Hull and Ray Lamb — who shared league MVP honors — paced the Yongsan Raiders to their third straight Korea Youth Activities League-Senior Division title.

Hull and Collins combined for seven touchdowns as the Korea All-Stars routed the Singapore Falcons 58-0, the most lopsided finish in the World Bowl’s 8-year history Nov. 25 at Yongsan Garrison’s Lombardo Field. It was Korea’s seventh triumph in the Far East youth activities championship.

Corey Dunlap, John Salas and the Simon Sanchez Sharks bulldozed their way to an unbeaten regular season in the Guam Interscholastic League. But their dream of a championship game to an end at the hands of S.P. Phillips and the Father Duenas Memorial Friars’ passing attack in the league’s title clash Oct. 21.

High school wrestling

Did the Kubasaki Dragons win 25-23, keeping their 19-season, 73-match winning streak alive on Jan. 11 at Okinawa’s Kadena High School? Or did Kadena tie the Dragons 27-27 and win the dual meet since they had more actual pinfalls on the mat?

That depends on whether you read the 1999 rules or those enacted Jan. 1, 2000 by FILA, international freestyle wrestling’s governing body.

The new rules weren’t available for that Jan. 11 match, and the mat referee certified the meet as a Kadena victory. Kubasaki coach Jeff Pellaton insisted the Dragons won because the new rules backed them.

It’s a debate that will live forever, but it also shocked new life into an Okinawa mat rivalry that until last season had been a foregone conclusion.

No longer could the Dragons chalk up a dual meet with Kadena as an automatic victory. Kubasaki’s margin of victory in the last three meets of the OHSAA season came by an average of 11 points.

Kubasaki caught fire the first weekend of February, and that roll continued right through the Far East tournament in mid-February at Yokosuka.

Micho’s surprise victory at 168 pounds Feb. 17 over Jayson David by pinfall helped Kubasaki to a 28-22 victory over the host Nile C. Kinnick Red Devils for its third straight Far East dual-meet crown.

Two days later, David again lost by pin, to Yokota’s Zack Martinez, opening the door for Kubasaki to win its fourth straight individual freestyle team title and its record 17th overall Far East tournament title.

T.J. Aguila (101), Bobby Duncan (115) and Josh Collins (heavyweight) won gold medals for Kubasaki, which edged out Kinnick 59-54 in the team standings.

Hull, of the Seoul American Falcons, surprised perhaps everybody except himself by winning the gold at 129 pounds and Outstanding Wrestler honors.

Stealing the show in the dual-meet round were coach Sean Greig and the Zama American Trojans, who finished sixth and won their first dual meets since 1990. Zama had 35 wrestlers turn out last season, more than five times the amount during the 1998-99 season.

Josh and Mike Anderson and the Osan American Cougars earned the first-ever Korean-American Interscholastic Athletic Conference title in the school’s 5-year history, going 9-1 while Seoul American went 6-4.

Edgren’s Stoney Sasser became the second girl to wrestle on a Pacific high school varsity team, joining former teammate Janine Kunsch, who wrestled the year before.

Kubasaki picked up right where it left off as the 2000-01 season got underway. The Dragons won six individual titles and took the team crown in the Pacific Area Championship Tournament at Guam’s Tiyan gym.

Kinnick opened the Japan season by running away with the Christian Academy In Japan Invitational Tournament.

High school basketball

With DODEA-Pacific mandating that all its weeklong sports tournaments be held during holiday weeks, the third week of February saw four Far East hoops tournaments held at the same time for the first time.

The boys Class AA (large schools) final at Kadena saw a legend coach his final game. Led by MVP Joe Saunders and All-Far East forward Matt Castagna, the Faith Academy Vanguards sent 43-year coach Tine Hardeman out a winner with a 68-62 triumph over host Kadena. It was his seventh Far East coaching championship.

Faith also won the girls Class AA tournament for the fourth straight year, and its fifth straight Far East title overall. Senior guards Candy Tanchi, Julie Stauffer and MVP Jaime Cutts paced Faith past host Edgren 54-34 in the tournament final at Misawa.

A new champion surfaced in the girls Class A (small schools) tournament at Pusan, South Korea. Led by Robin Siirila, Angel McGill, Laura Kriehn and Caroline Lai, Taiwan’s Morrison Christian Academy Mustangs edged Guam’s Notre Dame Royals 31-25 in the title tilt.

At Iwakuni, Chris Ford, B.J. Trinidad and Jason Cleavinger paced the E.J. King Cobras to their second Class A boys tournament title in four years, with a 53-47 triumph over CAJ in the final.

Though Edgren’s girls didn't take the Class AA title on their home court, Eagles senior forward Yevonne Sears did topple a 17-year-old Far East record for most points in a game, with 41.

Interestingly, the MVPs of both Class A tournaments did not come from the champion teams. Jeremy Eck, a 6-foot-7 center for host Matthew C. Perry, took MVP honors in the boys Class A tournament, while Rima Contreras of Notre Dame was the girls Class A MVP.

The regular season produced the longest overtime game in Far East history, with Edgren’s boys edging the E.J. King Cobras 44-43 in five overtimes at Iwakuni. Tony Johnson’s game-winning free throw broke a combined scoreless drought of 23 minutes, 45 seconds by both teams.

It also produced the first-ever victory by the Okinawa Christian International Crusaders over Kubasaki in the OHSAA’s 19-year history.

Kinnick’s boys won the Kanto Plain title on a spectacular buzzer-beating scoop shot by Eean Tyson for a 49-47 overtime victory Feb. 18 over the American School In Japan Mustangs.

Eck scored 50 or more points in a game three times during the season, once coming within 17 of the all-time single-game record of 71 set by Edgren’s Tim Griffin 29 years ago.

As the 2000-01 season began, Kinnick’s boys and girls teams got off to strong starts, with the boys team unbeaten at 9-0 and the girls 9-1 just before the holiday break. Seoul American’s boys (6-0) and girls (7-0) led the way in Korea.

Kubasaki’s girls suffered the worst loss by an American team in Far East high school history, 124-17 Dec. 8 to Japanese powerhouse Kitanakagusuku.

Less than two weeks later, Dec. 17, the Dragons defended their Hong Kong International School Christmas Tournament title, while the boys finished second.

High school soccer

Senior midfielder Jillian Bearden scored the lone goal of the Far East girls tournament’s final match late in the first half and goalkeeper Casey Gannon made it stand up with an acrobatic save in the closing seconds of a 1-0 victory over Kinnick on May 27 at Misawa.

It marked the third time in the 3-year history of DODEA-Pacific Far East tournaments that Kadena won the title, and beat Kubasaki in the elimination round along the way, after losing the OHSAA All-Star Series to the Dragons 3-2 and 2-1 back home on Okinawa.

High school volleyball

Guam ruled the courts during Far East tournament play Nov. 11, with the St. John’s Knights taking the Class AA crown at Kubasaki and the Southern Dolphins capturing the Class A title at Taegu, South Korea, the first Far East titles of any type for either school.

MVP Ana Hannah and the Knights topped CAJ 24-26, 31-29, 25-16, 26-24 in the Class AA title match. Meanwhile, Faith extended Southern to five sets in the Class A final, with the MVP Cathleen Topasna and the Dolphins surviving 25-22, 25-12, 23-25, 19-25, 15-6.

High school cross country

JFK won its first Far East tournament since 1983, running to victory in the two-day, 28-team meet at Tama Hills Recreation Center west of Tokyo. It was only the third time ASIJ had not won the team title in the meet’s 22-year history.

Genevieve Flores of Guam’s George Washington Geckos was the girls’ individual winner, while Ian Novick gave Yokohama’s St. Maur International Cougars their first Far East championship of any kind since 1985 with the boys’ individual crown.

Other notable prep achievements

In the pool, senior Juliet Stern of Kadena, swimming for the Okinawa Dolphins, took the girls 15-18 age group high-point title in the American Swim Council in Japan’s Junior Olympic meet March 12 at Tokyo’s St. Mary's International School.

Jerri Lester, Greg Libert and Brandon Rogers helped Seoul American swim its way to its fourth straight KAIAC championship.

Yokota’s 13-year-old star Elliko Heimbach won a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle in the September National Junior High School championships at Tatsumi International Swim Center in Tokyo.

Kinnick’s boys baseball team capped a turnaround from a winless 1998 season by going 13-4 and taking the Kanto regular-season crown.

Fireballing Leo Niewierowski and the Yongsan Cubs (5-3) edged out the Yongsan Braves (6-2) by a 5-4 score in the Yongsan Palomino Youth Baseball Championship on June 7.

Yokota’s girls softball team enjoyed its third straight Kanto title and went 8-0 on the season. The Guam High Panthers almost did the same, losing their penultimate game but winning their league title.

On the track, Steele and ASIJ swept both the Kanto boys and girls team titles, but sprinters such as Kinnick’s Tyson and Lorianne Roxas and Yokota’s Kelvin Wilson made plenty of individual noise all season.

Kadena, led by Williams, Anthony King and Susan Hawkins, finally ended Kubasaki's stranglehold on the Okinawa track, winning the boys title and sharing the girls championship in the All-Island meet.

Jay Felix helped the Dragons capture the Okinawa All-Island golf championship, with Kubasaki outscoring Kadena 918-1,037.

Interservice basketball

The first of the defending Marine Forces Pacific champions to be brought down was Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Saddled by the loss of several players to duty just before the tournament in October on Okinawa, Hawaii fell 101-68 to to Bryant Markowicz, formerly of Hawaii, and Okinawa’s 3rd Marine Division in the final.

On the open tournament circuit, Pacific Force, sponsored by Okinawa Marine Corps Community Services, took both major Pacific invitational men’s basketball tournament titles.

Ray Jackson earned MVP honors in the Martin Luther King Invitational in January on Okinawa and the March Madness Invitational in March on Guam, leading Pacific Force to the both titles. Pacific Force, under All-Marine Coach James Watts, is unbeaten the past two years in Pacificwide invitationals.

On the women’s side, Korea’s Yongsan Lady Rebels easily won the MLK title behind MVP Taruna Shuntrell Loyd. In the March Madness, Tanya Lewis paced the Misawa Jets to the women’s championship.

The first invitational of the 2000-01 season, at Yokota, saw the host Raiders emerge victorious. Led by MVP Reggie Reese, Yokota downed a combined team from Kadena and Osan.

Carlotta Moore, a veteran Marine stationed at Camp Kinser on Okinawa, was named to the All-Armed Forces team after helping her Marines finish second to Army in the Armed Forces championships in April at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

Interservice football

The U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League emerged, with a commissioner, former Misawa Jets player-turned-civilian attorney Tim Buck, and a full-fledged schedule and playoff system.

With quarterback-coach Chris Noland, the league’s MVP, at the controls, the Yokosuka Seahawks soared to a 15-1 overall record, the league’s regular-season title and a 12-6 rain-soaked victory over Yokota in the league’s first championship game Sept. 23 at Yokosuka.

The league started with six teams and finished with five — the most military grid teams in the Pacific since 1989. Still, there were growing pains. The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk folded in late August and nine games were postponed or canceled due to weather or duty commitments.

Interservice softball

The second of the Marine Forces Pacific defending champions to fall was Okinawa’s 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. On July 21, Joe Sutter went 6-for-8 with eight RBIs as Marine Corps Base Camp Butler grounded Wing 17-6 and 7-1 in a two-game final.

Seven Pacific-based Leathernecks helped the Marines end a 7-year title drought in the All-Armed Forces men’s softball tournament at San Diego in August. Tony Patrick of Kadena, Bill Cramblett of Yokota, Henry Trier and Nate Hales of Okinawa and the All-Armed Forces team then finished 15th in the National Majors Tournament at Lawton, Okla.

Air Force prevailed in the women’s Armed Forces tournament, also at San Diego. Then Nichole Bolte of Okinawa’s Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, Heather Carr of Yongsan and Lucy Geidner of Korea’s Camp Red Cloud helped the Armed Forces women to a runner-up finish in the women’s Class A nationals at Auburn, Ala.

On the open tournament circuit, Pacific Force ran its Grand Slam record total of tournament titles to 34 of the past 48 events dating back to 1989.

Pacific Force blanked host Yongsan 20-0 in the second game of a two-game final in the Memorial Day weekend Pacificwide Invitational. Yongsan won the women’s title, downing Pacific Force 18-6 in the second game.

July 4th weekend saw some late fireworks by Yongsan’s men’s and women’s team in the Firecracker Shootout at Okinawa’s Camp Foster. Dee Chandler’s sayonara grand slam lifted Yongsan’s women past the Kadena Falcons 17-13. Tim Plumhoff's two-run pinch-hit walk-off single gave Yongsan’s men a 22-21 victory over Korea’s Kunsan Wolf Pack.

Kadena’s women, led by MVP June Leoso — whom Chandler victimized for that grand slam — redeemed themselves in the Labor Day weekend Kadena Klassic, as they edged Pacific Force 6-5, again in a two-game final. Yongsan’s men also needed two games but downed Pizza Inn 20-19 to take the men’s title.

And on Columbus Day weekend, Pacific Force’s men capped the season by outslugging the Okinawa Bulldawgs 41-33 in a one-game men’s final in the Typhoon Classic at Torii Station.

Pacific Force’s men edged out Yongsan 32-31 in the unofficial Pacific Cup standings, while in the women’s standings, Yongsan outpointed Pacific Force 24-20.

CMFPAC soccer, volleyball

The last of the defending Marine Forces Pacific champions, Hawaii, fell 2-1 to Okinawa’s 3rd Force Service Support Group on Sept. 17 in the CMFPAC soccer tournament final at Camp Foster. Kwasi Ansong scored both goals for FSSG in the final of a tournament delayed three days by Typhoon Saomai.

Hawaii did come away with one CMFPAC championship, beating Division in straight sets in the CMFPAC volleyball tournament April 15, also at Camp Foster.

Pro boxing

Roberts, the Japan Boxing Commission’s lightweight champion, said farewell to his home of 10 years, Yokota, in June and hello again in November. And Orient & Pacific Boxing Federation middleweight champ Palmer returned to the ring after a 10-month injury-induced absence.

Roberts set the JBC record for consecutive title defenses, with 21, by beating Hironari Oshima on Feb. 21 at Korakuen Hall. Roberts transfered to Hurlburt Field, Fla., in June, but returned in November to defend his title for the last time.

With a 10-round unanimous decision Nov. 26 over Takehiro Shimada, Roberts improved to 38-3-1 and earned a Feb. 17 bout for the WBA title against champion Takenori Hatakeyama of Japan.

Palmer, of Yokosuka, had two surgeries late last year to correct herniated discs in his back. His return to the ring, July 25 at Korakuen, resulted in a fifth-round technical knockout of Thailand’s Cherainowi Chuwatana and a 22-0-1 record.

Pro baseball

Finally, slugging helped the Taegu Buzzards, an over-30 baseball team composed mostly of Taegu-area GIs, to the regular-season championship of the Korea Diamond League, a Class C minor-league circuit.

Led by Mel Noes, Richard Grizzle and Hong Sun-ho, the Buzzards went 28-2-2 in the regular season before falling to the Taegu Best 9 in the league title game Nov. 12.

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