SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The threat of Typhoon Maemi approaching southwestern Japan forced E.J. King High School to call off this weekend’s season openers in cross country, girls volleyball and tennis at Sasebo.

Also, Friday’s scheduled season-opening Okinawa High School Athletic Association football games were postponed, school officials announced Friday.

E.J. King athletic director Richard Kendall announced the postponement Thursday in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. It was not immediately known when or if the weekend series would be rescheduled.

Typhoon Maemi, packing sustained winds of 150 mph at its center with gusts of 184 mph, was 150 miles southwest of Okinawa on Thursday afternoon.

It was expected to start tracking north, gradually losing strength as it went, and forecast to pass about 160 miles west of Sasebo at 9 p.m. Friday, with sustained winds of 100 mph and gusts up to 120 mph.

The storm spared Okinawa its gusty center winds, but both OHSAA football openers were called off anyway.

Kadena’s Islanders and Buccaneers were slated for a 4 p.m. Friday kickoff. It was not known when that would be played if it were postponed, Bucs coach Brian Wetherington said.

The Kubasaki Shogun vs. Samurai game, scheduled for a 7 p.m. Friday kickoff, was rescheduled for 5 p.m. Monday, Shogun coach Charles Burns said.

Maemi was expected to track much closer to Korea than Japan, but no Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference games are scheduled this weekend because of the annual Chu Sok holiday period.

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