Typhoon Sanba forces DODDS Pacific football postponements
URUMA, Okinawa – With Typhoon Sanba forecast to plow just west of Okinawa on Sunday, DODDS Pacific officials decided Friday to postpone two inter-district high school football games pitting defending Far East Division I champion Yokota at Kubasaki and Kadena at Daegu High.
While the games were scheduled for Saturday, Kadena and Yokota were scheduled to return to their respective homes on Sunday, flying into and out of Naha International Airport when the storm is forecast to be at its peak and many flights are expected to be canceled.
“Our top priorities are safety and academics and the projected weather presents too many risks to our coaches and student athletes,” DODDS Pacific spokesman Charly Hoff said. “We are exploring future scheduling options and looking at ways to make up these games.”
Typhoon Sanba is forecast to rumble 40 miles west of Okinawa at 3 p.m. Sunday, and forecasts call for Okinawa to experience 127-mph sustained winds and 144-mph gusts between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday.
Any flight cancellations would mean the traveling teams might be stranded for a day or more, missing class time as a result. DODDS Pacific policy mandates that student-athletes miss as little school as possible for traveling DODDS-sponsored athletics events.
Yokota-Kubasaki is a battleground game with berths in the Nov. 17 Far East Division I title game at stake. Besides that, the two teams played for the D-I title last November, with Yokota winning at home 34-6. According to DODDS Pacific’s football schedule, the teams don’t have a coinciding bye week the rest of the season.
Nov. 10, the week prior to the D-I championship game, is an open date, with neither team scheduled to play. But DODDS officials said they were leaning toward early October as a possible makeup scenario.
Coaches of the four teams in question were either in a Far East Athletics Council meeting with FEAC coordinator Don Hobbs or in class and were not available immediately for comment.
“I know folks are going to be disappointed” by the postponements, Hoff said, “but we have to put safety and academics first.”
