Getting used to new digs: What Ornauer learned on Day 1 of the 40th Hong Kong International School Holiday Basketball Tournament
Published: November 26, 2009
Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer stares wide-eyed at the wonder of it all on his first visit to Hong Kong:
-- Imagine a 10-story building plucked and dropped into the Great Smoky Mountains, the Adirondacks or Cascades. That's what Hong Kong International School, opened 42 years ago, looks like, a tall edifice built into the side of a hill in the breathtakingly scenic Tai Tam area of Hong Kong. Greenery everywhere, the people are friendly and getting acquainted with new faces and reacquainted with old ones. Fun times, these.
-- The Hong Kong International School Holiday Basketball Tournament has been run pretty much by the same eight-team pool-play and single-elimination playoff format since its inception in 1970. It's actually the second-oldest basketball tournament out here, trailing only the DODEA Pacific Far East Boys Class AA Basketball Tournament, which sees its 61st edition come February at Yokota Air Base, Japan.
-- Highly recommend the school site for those rehabilitating a leg injury: You could run upstairs for years, with all the tall buildings here.
-- Among the many in attendance at the tournament:
Tine Hardeman, the legendary former Faith Academy boys coach with seven Pacificwide tournament titles to his credit, watching his granddaughters Kelly and Liz play for Faith in the tournament.
Tine's son Todd, Vanguards girls assistant coach whom I saw PLAY as a senior in the DODEA Pacific Far East tournament at Yokota in 1982.
Dan Beaver, the legendary ex-Faith girls coach with eight DODEA Pacific Far East titles to his credit, including the famed "Drive for Five" titles in the late 1990s and 2000.
Adrian Price, back at his old stomping grounds where he won this tournament four times, 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2002, before leaving for his native Australia to pursue a doctorate.
Anthony Soroka, the former Kadena tennis, basketball and soccer star, having graduated from Princeton and done a year at Oxford and is now interning at HKIS.
Jeremy Evans, Hong Kong International's boys coach whom I saw PLAY in the 1993 DODEA Pacific Far East Tournament at Yokota.
-- A cab ride up the hill to Tai Tam and the HKIS campus, replete with the hairpin turns and narrow lanes. Not for the faint of heart. Ride on the RIGHT side of the cab.
-- Kicking back with a ... um ... sports beverage at Mainstreet Cafe along the Stanley waterfront at night after the games are done, either taking in the night view of the harbour or a Tottenham Hotspur match on the wide-screen telly. Great for the soul.
-- Folks in Japan: Your AU Global Passport phone will not work in Hong Kong. The GPS feature recognises that you're in China (technically) and the correct time zone, but you will not get a signal. Good news: LG phones are readily available in the new airport terminal and are ridiculously cheap (got mine plus 100 minutes for just under $50).
-- War wound of the tournament (thus far): Kadena senior Jeremy Howell took an elbow to his upper lip in the Panthers' 89-68 opening win over Seoul Foreign. A few stitches and he played right through it.
-- Cuisine of the tournament (thus far): The Thanksgiving turkey dinner served in the hospitality room, perhaps the finest hospitality room of any tournament I've ever been to (and I'm not saying that because of where I am; it was THAT good).
-- Beverage of the tournament (thus far): Bundaburg Lemon Ale, a non-alcoholic lemon drink so named for the region of Queensland, Australia, where the stuff is brewed. Good call.
-- Vipin, Richard, Mike: Thanks for everything!
Too bad this thing lasts only three days. They should make it week-long.
