Neil Kentish caught one of two touchdown passes for Kadena against ASIJ. (Greg Holladay/Special to Stripes)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Getting a handful of student-athletes from DODEA-Pacific schools heading to college on athletic scholarship in a single year is usually considered quite the feat.

Call this spring quite unusual, then – 20 seniors are moving up to the next level, 14 combined from Kadena and Kubasaki on Okinawa, with four headed to NAIA Olivet Nazarene of Joliet, Ill., alone.

How is that possible?

“Don’t limit yourself,” said Kadena senior Neil Kentish, one of the four moving on to Olivet Nazarene to play for the Tigers. “Trust that all your hard work will pay off.”

Kentish, a receiver-cornerback, will be joined at ONU by Panthers teammates Carmelo Ward and Cameron Edson, and Kubasaki’s Lukas Gaines. Each signed to play football for the Tigers.

DODEA students overseas can face handicaps in getting noticed by stateside institutes of higher learning. It’s much harder to be seen by coaches when one lives across an ocean.

“It took me focusing on my craft,” Kentish said. “Ultimately, I had to pull up the film, get the film out, talk with coaches, phone calls, emails, whatever it took to get it done.”

It also doesn’t hurt to think small when it comes to college selection, a sampling of coaches and athletes said. Olivet Nazarene’s enrollment was 3,150 in 2023-24; nearby Division I DePaul’s enrollment was about 18,500.

Kubasaki fullback Lukas Gaines is headed to Olivet Nazarene to play football on scholarship. (Jimmy Mills/Special to Stripes)

Kubasaki's Carlos Cadet, left, is headed to Carroll University in Wisconsin and Haustyn Lunsford to Mansfield University in Pennsylvania to play football and run track. (Jimmy Mills/Special to Stripes)

Other athletes from Okinawa headed to university on scholarship, full or partial, are:

-- Liza Young, a Kadena volleyball player who has signed with Northwood University, a Division II school in Midland, Mich.

-- Tobin Kaiser, another Kadena senior who signed to play lacrosse for Chowan University, a Division II school in Murfreesboro, N.C.

-- Sakura Lopez, a Kubasaki soccer player who received an appointment to attend the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y. The Mariners play in the Division III Skyline Conference.

-- Solares Solano, a teammate of Lopez who has signed to play for Division II Glenville State University in West Virginia.

-- Hailey Stoudemayer is a teammate of Solano’s and Lopez’s. She will suit up for Hastings University, a Division II school in Nebraska.

-- Carlos Cadet, a Pacific record-breaking track star who led Kubasaki to its first DODEA-Pacific D-I football title in 12 years, is headed to Division III Carroll University in Waukesha, Wis., to play both sports on full scholarship.

-- Brennen Hall, a Kubasaki senior shot-putter and discus thrower, has signed with Shenandoah University of Winchester, Va., to throw for the Division III Hornets.

-- Max Lundberg of Kubasaki has signed with St. Mary’s College of California. He’ll play lacrosse for the Gaels club team in the Division II Western College Lacrosse League.

-- Haustyn Lunsford, who with Gaines and Cadet teamed to form the “three headed Dragon” in football, is headed to Mansfield (Pa.) University and will play football and run track for the Division II Mountaineers.

-- Emily Schwennesen wasn’t able to do crew while on Okinawa, but had competed in the sport in her younger years and was able to secure a preferred walk-on spot with Division III Rochester Institute of Technology, located on the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate New York.

“We’ve set the bar, a high bar,” said Tony Alvarado, who coached Cadet, Gaines and Lunsford during football. “Now that we’ve done that, we want to continue to support and encourage our athletes that we can do this. Now we know. We have kids coming up in our programs who can do this.”

Three student-athletes from E.J. King are headed to Division II schools.

Soccer players Damian Perez and Amin Alipourkashiki signed with Point Park University of Pittsburgh, Perez on full scholarship and grants in aid and Alipourkashiki on partial scholarship. Basketball guard Jeremy Phillips will attend United International College of Dania Beach, Fla., on grants in aid.

From Nile C. Kinnick, two long-distance runners have signed to compete for D-II colleges on partial scholarships. Avrie Farrington will run cross country and track for South Carolina-Beaufort and Mia Bartram will do similar for Florida Southern, each on partial scholarship.

And from Yokota, football player Kicoh Guenther has signed to play for Pacific Lutheran, an NCAA Division III school in Parkland, Wash. Guenther will be on partial scholarship.