Off the gridiron: Zama tennis off to a flying start
Published: September 10, 2012
-- One Burke leaves, another one steps up and takes her place. Natalie Burke of Zama American began the DODDS Japan tennis season with three wins in as many singles matches. Twice against E.J. King, she didn’t drop a single game. Zama unbeaten after one week. Older sister Tia, last year's Kanto champion and Far East runner-up would be proud.
-- Who is Jarrell Hilber and where did he come from? Zama may have found a itself a rising cross-country star, who placed second in the first boys Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools heat Saturday at Tama Hills Recreation Center.
-- That said, Nile C. Kinnick’s Robert Beard and Carydaliz Fontanez might prove to be tough to beat on the DODDS Japan circuit.
-- Samantha (cross country) and Amelia (volleyball) Arnold. They could form a solid 1-2 family punch for Yokota, which won three volleyball matches at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, while Amelia’s freshman sister led a 1-3-4 finish by Yokotans in the girls first heat at Tama.
-- Ryan Parker, Sally Lee and Seoul American’s runners look like they still have some fight left in them after the departure of the Henderson sisters.
-- Looks like nobody’s going to catch Jeffrey and Jae-hyun Kim and Seoul Foreign tennis … again. Sure wish they’d get an invitation to Far East.
-- Yokota’s tennis girls lineup of Emily Beemsterboer, Anju Yamanaka and Ashley Hirata: As good as advertised.
-- I just love how Matthew C. Perry tennis coach Mark Lange continues to pluck soccer players off the pitch, put rackets in their hands and ask them to disguise themselves as tennis players. Something about the issue of trust; they play for Lange on both court and pitch.
-- Yokota in five sets over Perry in volleyball. Could be a preview of the DODDS Japan final.
-- Seoul American over Daegu High in five sets in volleyball. Could be a preview of the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference Girls Division I tournament final.
-- Erik Armes may still rule the Okinawa district cross-country courses. But look which school placed four runners in the top 10 of last Wednesday’s season opener at Jack’s Place! Okinawa Christian International could be this year’s Zion Christian Academy. That Ryan Bugler can run just a little.
-- The girls field may be a slugfest. Kadena’s Ana Hernandez and Rachel Burchill and Kubasaki’s Allie Reichenberg and Jessica Freedman within 17 seconds of each other.
-- We knew Alison Bowman could run the distance races in Guam track and field. But the Guam High sophomore is proving just as competitive in 3.1’s.
