Osan American High School senior Celine Baldevia zooms in for an image during Monday’s poster photo challenge in the three-day Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Pacific Far East High School Journalism Conference at the New Sanno Armed Forces Centre, Tokyo. Baldevia is an editor on Osan’s yearbook staff, but is also the reigning Far East Class A Volleyball Tournament MVP for the defending champion Cougars, who play two Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference regular-season matches in Baldevia’s absence. (Dave Ornauer/S&S)
TOKYO — Surrounded by fellow student-journalist classmates at the U.S. military’s five-star hotel here, Ja’La Wourman found herself at cross purposes on Monday morning.
The Nile C. Kinnick senior yearbook editor yearned to expand her knowledge of editing, publishing, writing and video graphics during the DODDS-Pacific Far East Journalism Conference at the New Sanno Hotel.
Yet she entered the three-day conference knowing she would miss an important Red Devils volleyball match against Seisen International on Tuesday.
Though Kinnick defeated Seisen in five sets Sept. 30 at Seisen, Wourman said she and her teammates weren’t satisfied with the match and now she couldn’t be there to make amends at Yokosuka Naval Base.
"I love volleyball, but I know I had to make a decision," said Wourman, also the volleyball team’s co-captain. "In life, you can’t do two things at once. You have to choose. And I know this will benefit me in the long run."
That choice confronts many DODDS-Pacific student-athletes. The DODDS-Pacific’s Far East Activities Council calendar lists a total of 22 activities, about half of them sports tournaments.
Unlike in the States, where a student may specialize in one skill or two, DODDS schools tend to be smaller, making it easier to participate in a number of activities. but sometimes causing conflict with other scheduled events, which cause dilemmas similar to Wourman’s.
"Everything in life, you have to make choices," said David Clausen, journalism teacher at Seoul American who’s at his 15th Far East Journalism Conference, having directed six of them. He spoke of how students not only get the journalism side, but the culture of seeing Tokyo as well.
"Where you have choices, in most cases, good things happen," he said.
"But it isn’t always easy," DODDS-Pacific FEAC chair Don Hobbs said. "They’re sitting there going, ‘Why do I have to make this choice?’ "
Wourman attended a journalism and mass communications leadership conference last summer in Washington, where, she said, her interest in journalism awakened.
She said she felt as if she were being pulled in different directions this week, wanting to learn and pass on her knowledge to yearbook students back home, but wanting to be there for her volleyball teammates.
"I felt I let my team down. I know they expect me to be on the court," Wourman said. "But my teammates stood behind me. That helped me to really want to come."
While wanting to have all his weapons at his disposal, Kinnick coach Al Garrido says he understood why Wourman chose this route and that his team would make do.
"I try not to put pressure on my players," Garrido said. "They’re making a life decision. She has aspirations of becoming a journalist. How can I tell her that volleyball is more important? She’ll be missed, but … I have players who can play multiple positions."
Wourman wasn’t the only one facing that dilemma. Kubasaki senior tennis player Megan Roy, also a yearbook staffer, missed the Okinawa Activities Council doubles tennis tournament Wednesday to be at the journalism conference.
"I put in a lot of time on it (yearbook) last year, and I thought it was important to come here and do my part," she said, adding that she’ll play in the OAC singles tournament next week, followed by the Far East tournament at Kadena.
Celine Baldevia, a senior on Osan American’s yearbook staff and reigning Far East Girls Class A Volleyball Tournament MVP, missed Far East journalism last year and didn’t want to in her final year, even though it means she’ll skip two regular-season Korea matches.
"I’m missing the last games and practice" before the league tournament and Far East," Baldevia said.
Others didn’t have that challenge — sophomores Yurie Tanaka and Alysa Prather were able to do both, journalism by day while suiting up for their Zama American volleyball team for Tuesday’s match at International School of the Sacred Heart.
Meanwhile, senior Sarah Zedeker of Robert D. Edgren’s volleyball team wouldn’t make it to Misawa on time to catch her team bus heading to a weekend volleyball series roughly 800 miles south at Matthew C. Perry in Iwakuni.
Choosing between journalism and sports is far less painful, Hobbs said, since DODDS-Pacific moved journalism to October. It used to be the same week as Far East tennis, cross country, volleyball and cheerleading.
"We knew that journalism students participate in other sports. At least now, it doesn’t force them to make a more difficult choice. If they qualify, they can participate in that first week of November."