Kubasaki senior quarterback Carlos Cadet is headed to Carroll University in Waukesha, Wis., to play football and run track. (Tiffany Mae Okamura/Special to Stripes)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Ten more DODEA-Pacific student-athletes have signed paperwork committing them to play sports at the collegiate level, eight from Kubasaki, two from E.J. King.
“With a great foundation and good discipline, you can do anything you put your mind to,” said Kubasaki senior Carlos Cadet, one of the eight Dragons making commitments recently.
Cadet will play football and track and field on full scholarship at Carroll University, a Division III school in Waukesha, Wis. His two backfield teammates who became collectively known as the “Three-Headed Dragon” have also committed to play college athletics:
Senior fullback Lukas Gaines signed for a partial scholarship to play football at NAIA Olivet Nazarene in Illinois, while senior halfback Haustyn Lunsford is going to Mansfield (Pa.) University, a Division II school where he’ll play football and run track on full scholarship.
The threesome helped lead Kubasaki to its first Far East Division I football title since 2013. Gaines also plays baseball and Lunsford soccer for the Dragons, while Cadet runs track and field and set the Pacific record in the 110 hurdles (14.61 seconds) earlier this spring.
The Carroll University Pioneers of the Division III College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin went 5-5 overall last season and 4-5 in conference play.
Gaines joins the NAIA Olivet Tigers of Bourbonnais, Ill., of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Tigers went 6-4 overall and 3-2 last season.
Mansfield is a campus of the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. The Division II Mountaineers play in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. They went 3-5 overall and 3-1 in conference in 2024.
Kubasaki senior fullback Lukas Gaines has signed to play for Olivet Nazarene in Illinois. (Jim Mills/Special to Stripes)
Kubasaki senior Haustyn Lunsford is headed to Mansfield University of Pennsylvania to play football and run track. (Tiffany Mae Okamura/Special to S)
Kubasaki senior Sakura Lopez's next soccer team will be the United States Merchant Marine Academy Mariners next fall at Kings Point, N.Y. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
In other sports, two Kubasaki girls soccer players, Sakura Lopez and Hailey Stoudemayer, will be playing collegiately. They were part of the Far East D-I champion Dragons team in 2023.
Lopez earned an appointment to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., while Stoudemayer has committed to Hastings, an NAIA university in Nebraska.
“There are so many opportunities there; just attending the academy is incomparable,” said Lopez, who will attend the smallest of the five U.S. service academies with an enrollment of 1,100 located on Long Island’s north shore.
Lopez says she plans to major in engineering and can choose to either don an officer’s uniform or work on the civilian side after graduation.
“And playing soccer there is a big reason,” she said of a Mariners team that went 10-3-4 overall and 8-1-2 in the Skyline Conference. Lopez has 49 career goals in high school, including 13 with Zama, from where she transferred to Okinawa in 2023.
Hastings is in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. The Broncos went 15-1-6 overall and 8-0-3 last season.
Brennen Hall throws shot put and discus for the Dragons and will head to Winchester, Va., on a combined academic and athletic scholarship to Shenandoah University, a Division III school in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.
Kubasaki senior Hailey Stoudemayer, right, will play soccer next fall for Hastings College in Nebraska. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kubasaki senior Brennen Hall's next throwing destination will be Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kubasaki senior Max Lundberg wrestled and played tennis for the Dragons, but will play lacrosse at St. Mary's College of California. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Max Lundberg, the son of DODEA educators teaching at Kubasaki, is headed to St. Mary’s College of California, a Division I school in the West Coast Conference. He played tennis and wrestled for the Dragons.
Lundberg is going to St. Mary’s on partial academic scholarship and will play for the Gaels club lacrosse team that competes in the Division II Western College Lacrosse League.
There’s even a student from Kubasaki planning to row in college with a preferred walk-on slot at Rochester Institute of Technology, located on the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate New York.
“It’s been a weird journey since we don’t have crew on Okinawa,” said Kubasaki senior Emily Schwennesen, who rowed in the States before coming to Okinawa three years ago.
“So, I filled out the form and did a meeting (with the coaching staff) on zoom,” she said. “We had a long conversation and we went from ‘I don’t know’ to ‘we’ll give you a varsity spot.’” The Rochester Tigers compete in the Division II Liberty League.
Two soccer players at E.J. King, striker Damian Perez and defensive specialist Amin Alipourkashiki, are headed to Point Park University in Pittsburgh. The Mountaineers compete in the Division II Mountain East Conference and went 6-10-1 overall and 3-10-1 in conference in 2024.
Perez is the reigning Far East Division II Golden Boot winner, while Alipourkashiki is a two-time All-Far East Division II selection.
Crew is not offered as a varsity sport by DODEA-Pacific. But Kubasaki senior Emily Schwennesen did crew in the States before arriving on Okinawa, and has been given a preferred walk-on spot with Rochaster Institute of Technology in upstate New York. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
King senior Damian Perez, center, is headed to Point Park University in Pennsylvania to play soccer. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
King senior Amin Alipourkashiki is headed to Point Park University in Pennsylvania to play soccer. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
