For Pacific prep and interservice teams, 2005 was a year of firsts and upsets:
High school football teams engaged in a full regional playoff. For the first time:
• Since 1998, Yokota High School’s football team did not play for a championship.
• Osan American swept Class A tournament championships.
• An Okinawa high school team did not win a Far East Class AA boys soccer tournament.
On the interservice front, Misawa Air Base’s interservice football team finally won a U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League title.
So it went for Pacific sports milestones in a year when a gaggle of new faces took home championship hardware.
Feb. 5 — Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Pacific wrestlers tune up for the Far East tournament by competing in the Nile C. Kinnick “Beast of the Far East” invitational. In a key bout between returning Far East champions, Seoul American’s Scott Tunis decisions Zama American’s David Burnett. Four 2004 Far East champions won a gold.
Feb. 18-19 — Kubasaki crowns four individual champions and wins the individual freestyle team title, then edges Nile C. Kinnick in Far East tournament history’s closest dual-meet final, extending its record to 20 Far East tournament titles.
Feb. 25 — Ending a two-year drought, seniors Mina Davis, Margaret Nurse and Sharon Kroening return Osan American girls basketball team to Far East Class A winner’s circle.
March 18 — Kunsan Air Base overcomes Osan Air Base in the women’s final as Camp Humphreys’ men overwhelm Spotlight of Okinawa in the men’s final of the March Madness Open Basketball Tournament at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The tournament coincided with the opening of the base’s new $17 million fitness and sports center.
March 30 — Citing lack of interest, Matthew C. Perry High School folds its Japan Football League program.
April 2 — Pusan American’s boys soccer team beats Seoul American 1-0, its first-ever triumph over the Falcons; Pusan American girls sweep their season series with Osan American for first time ever; Edgren beats Yokota 7-5, handing the Panthers girls softball team its first loss in four years.
April 6 — Marine Cpl. Jacob Clark, 25, returns to Camp Foster, Okinawa, after capturing freestyle and Greco-Roman gold medals in the All-Armed Forces tournament at Colorado Springs. He’s named Marine Corps Athlete of the Year.
April 7 — Kubasaki’s girls soccer team ends Kadena’s 24-match unbeaten streak, beating the Panthers 4-2 at Camp Foster.
April 7 — Senior Brieanna Carroll of Pusan American becomes the first of three girls soccer players to score 100 career goals. Kubasaki’s Erin Foote follows on April 20 and Kadena junior Dianne Abel on May 17.
April 29 — Kadena junior Marquis Newton soars to a Japan record 6 foot, 5½ inchesin the high jump. Six league records are either tied or broken as Kadena wins the Okinawa District Track and Field Meet boys title.
May 14 — Senior Pinkey McBride of Okinawa’s Kubasaki Dragons shatters Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools girls shot-put record by almost a half-meter as the Dragons seize eight gold medals in the league’s season-ending meet. Yokota’s girls swept the relays, 100 and 200, breaking the league 400 relay record with a 49.8, while Tony Price of Kubasaki won four golds.
May 20 — Christian Academy In Japan ends Okinawa’s Far East Class AA soccer tournament title monopoly. Kadena’s girls repeat their title but need a shootout to edge Kubasaki. Osan sweeps both Class A tournament titles for the first time in school history.
June 17 — Yvonnes Sanders repeats as MVP and powers Marine Corps Base Camp Butler to its second straight Marine Forces Pacific Regional Basketball Tournament title, beating 3rd Marine Division/Expeditionary Force.
July 31 — Four from Yongsan Garrison, two from Camp Carroll, three from Camp Humphreys and one each from air bases Kunsan and K-16 and camps Red Cloud, Henry, Casey and Walker, qualify for the 8th U.S. Army team in the Army Ten-Miler in October in Washington.
Aug. 3 — Marine Corps Base Camp Butler does its finest work with two outs, erupting for big third-inning rallies to ground 1st Marine Aircraft Wing 22-13 and 18-10 in a two-game Marine Forces Pacific Regional Softball Tournament final.
Aug. 26 — Clarence Carey, Jamey Crawford and Mark Fox propel the Marauders to their first U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League title 30-21 over Yokota.
Sept. 9 — Chris Markey of Osan Air Base triples and scores the game — and title-clinching - run as All-Air Force edges Navy to defend its All-Armed Forces men’s softball tournament title. Dexter Avery of Camp Carroll, South Korea, is named All-Armed Forces for the eighth time.
Sept. 16 — All-Air Force defends its All-Armed Forces women’s basketball tournament title, winning based on points tiebreaker at Port Hueneme, Calif. Evevetta Crawford of Okinawa’s Torii Station is named to the All-Armed Forces team.
Oct. 10 — Kadena Falcons edge First Command 2-1 for the women’s title in the 11th Kadena Klassic softball tourney. Kadena completes a sweep of all three major Pacific tournament titles this season.
Nov. 5 — Big play by junior Carlos Albaladejo rallies Osan American past Robert D. Edgren 16-14 for the first Far East Class A football championship on the Cougars’ home field.
Nov. 5 — “Somebody’s ‘0’ (loss record) has got to go,” the game was billed. And Seoul American ran its Pacific-best winning streak to 25 games, while handing seven-time Japan Football League champion Yokota its first on-field loss in 55 games in the first Far East Class AA football playoff semifinal on Falcon Field. On Guam, Kubasaki of Okinawa won the other semifinala nd the right to host the first-ever Class AA title game.
Nov. 7 — Senior Matt Evans won the boys’ individual race and sophomore Victoria Lyle the girls’ in the Far East cross-country meet at Misawa Air Base, Japan.
Nov. 8 — Seoul American becomes the second DODDS-Pacific school, with Kadena, to win the Far East High School Cross-Country Meet team title, dethroning two-time defending champion Panthers.
Nov. 11 — Seoul American adds to its Far East high school title haul, winning the tennis tournament team title on Guam. E.J. King’s Kristia Suriben becomes the first DODDS-Japan player to win a singles and doubles title.
Nov. 11 — The Taegu American Warriors win the first Far East Class A Girls Volleyball Tournament title in school history in a five-set final against Morrison Christian Academy of Taiwan.
Nov. 12 — Senior spiker Alex Fernandez powers Kubasaki of Okinawa to its third Final Four finish in school history, placing fourth in the Class AA volleyball tournament at Seoul American.
Nov. 12 — Seoul American’s 25-game football winning streak ends when Okinawa’s Kubasaki Dragons pound the Falcons 34-14.
Nov. 26 — The Kadena Dragons power to their second straight Okinawa Football League title with a 45-7 romp over the upstart Courtney-Hansen Titans.
Dec. 7 — Yokota’s wrestling team downs St. Mary’s International 40-24 at Yokota — the Panthers’ first dual-meet victory over the Titans in seven seasons and only the third in 29 years.
Dec. 10 — Senior Mark Striegl of St. Mary’s International’s seven-year unbeaten run comes to an end when Nile C. Kinnick senior Kenji Doughty decisions Striegl to win the 148-pound gold medal in the Christian Academy In Japan Wrestling Tournament.
Dec. 10 — Two-time All-Armed Forces guard Ron Bartley of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and Francis Ebong of Sasebo Naval Base, Japan, help defending champion Team USA capture the bronze medal in the SHAPE International Basketball Tournament at Mons, Belgium.
Dec. 21 — Two-time All-Armed Forces guard Ron Bartley exits on a high note, hitting the game-winning shot with 20 seconds left to lift the Yongsan Runnin’ Rebels over the Camp Humphreys Bulldogs 79-76 in the Pacificwide Open Holiday Basketball Tournament men’s final. Humphreys’ women best Osan Air Base 50-41 for the women’s crown.
