TORII STATION, Okinawa – Now that DODDS Korea’s three wrestling teams have joined football in getting extra in-season DODDS Pacific-funded travel, some coaches and schools are asking: Who’s next?
DODDS-Pacific officials say they intend to add in-season travel for more sports when - and/or if - funding becomes available. They plan to target sports in areas where the need is greatest – where fewer competition opportunities exist, such as tennis and volleyball on Okinawa and baseball and softball in Korea.
But with Defense Secretary Robert Gates seeking to trim $78 billion from the defense budget over the next five years, funding remains a concern. Similar cuts have impacted high school sports in the past. In 1981, DODDS-Pacific’s entire Far East tournament calendar was shut down completely due to cuts. The 1986 versions were threatened.
“We are attempting to increase the opportunities for regular-season competition in certain sports in certain districts,” Far East athletics coordinator Don Hobbs said. “I can’t promise anything in addition to football and wrestling … but we’re going to see what can be done.”
What’s the criteria?
“Certain sports, certain schools, certain districts where there is a need,” Hobbs said. “We’re not being frivolous with our money. There has to be a real need for competition because of the lack of competition for those schools in those sports during the regular season.”
More opportunities to travel and compete “would be fantastic,” Kadena tennis coach Robert Bliss said. “It would be great to see other sports get something as well.”
Girls’ athletics, which to this point have not benefitted from the in-season funded travel, will get “No. 1 priority from this point on,” Hobbs said.
“If they’re looking to spread money equally across the board, girls volleyball would be the perfect opportunity,” Kadena coach Greg Rosenberger said.
Hobbs acknowledged that “so far” the scales have been tipped in favor of boys sports. “We have kept that in the back of our minds. We absolutely will” attempt to seek more funding for girls’ sports, “but it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack sometimes.”
Until last fall, Korea’s three football teams only faced each other as did Okinawa’s two football teams. DODDS-Pacific funds were used for the two districts to engage in regular-season football games.
Earlier this month, officials announced that Seoul, Osan and Daegu American’s wrestling teams - who only face each other during the season - would have travel funded to this month’s Rumble on the Rock tournament at Kubasaki on Okinawa.
But Hobbs said in light of the DOD cuts, he’s concerned about maintaining as well as expanding.
“I’m very concerned about the existing programs, not just the Far East tournaments but regular season competition. Nothing official has come down. I’m not painting a gray picture over everything. We’re going to go on as normal until we hear differently. But it does concern me.”
Without going into specifics, Hobbs said one way to ensure at least one road trip per season for Okinawa tennis, softball and volleyball would be to see “if they can fit somewhere in the Japan and Korea schedules, maybe over a three-day weekend to go to some type of tournament.”
That would mean funding travel to events such the softball jamborees staged in April at Camp Zama the last two years, which Kadena and Kubasaki attended. Or the Kadena Invitational Girls Volleyball Tournament last Columbus Day weekend which attracted Daegu American from Korea. In 2008 and 2009, Kadena’s tennis team traveled to Hong Kong and Tokyo for competition.
“Anything to get our girls playing ball and not just against the green and white,” Kadena softball coach Jesse Costa said of constantly facing island-rival Kubasaki during the regular season.
Rosenberger said he plans to run the Kadena volleyball tournament again “with or without funding, but money would make it easier” for teams to travel to Okinawa. And he wants his team to travel, too. “I’d love to see volleyball have a travel trip if possible.”
Hobbs cautioned against people getting ahead of themselves before new funding can be found. If it can be found.
“Are we going to continue to have money” to fund more football and wrestling trips in the future? “There’s nothing been established that promises or even indicates this will continue. We’re just going to play it as it comes.”
It’s likely it isn’t possible to add any more funding this school year for other sports.
“But we’re certainly going to keep looking,” Hobbs said. “As time progresses, we’ll have a better understanding and feel for how much money we’ll have access to. And hopefully, it won’t be cut.”
