CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — After years at the same sites, two Far East tournaments will have new homes next year.
The three-day Far East tennis tournament, held on Okinawa since 1991, is shifting to Guam, and the Girls Class A basketball tournament is moving from Pusan, where it originated in 1990, to Taegu American School in South Korea.
“We’re quite pleased,” Guam High athletics director Ruth Maher said.
Guam High has not hosted a Far East event since cross country in 2002.
Far East Activities Council chairman Don Hobbs said the council formalized the schedule a week before spring break.
Far East tournaments usually rotate sites every two years, but Hobbs says Pusan American kept the girls basketball because it had become a “community event.” Although the school “has done a wonderful job since 1990 in hosting this tournament” and is to close after the 2005-06 school year, “we thought it best to pass the torch now,” he said.
Said Michelle Chandler, Taegu American coach and assistant AD: “We hope we can do half as good a job as Pusan” with girls basketball.
Chandler said the Taegu community will “try to keep it consistent” with what longtime tournament director Don Miller began in 1990.
The tennis tournament had been hosted by Kubasaki or Kadena on Okinawa and played at the 11-court Risner Tennis Complex on Kadena Air Base since 1991.
Maher said she’s working to try to ensure the tournament is held at just one site.
“Typically, during the tennis season we use the Hagatna and Tamuning courts but the [Guam] regular season will be going on, and we’ll have to find other courts to use,” she said, adding that she hoped the tournament could be staged on base.
Among other site changes: