By Dave Ornauer
Published: June 29, 2009
Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as we near July and the U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League playoffs:
-- Memo to defensive coaches: Put a couple of bodies on No. 5 for Yokota. Kevin Fortin leads the Warriors in yards and touchdowns; he added a pair of sixes from 5 and 80 yards out in Yokota's 12-6 win over Torii Station on Saturday at Yokota High School's Bonk Field.
-- Memo to offensive coordinators: Do NOT -- repeat -- NOT throw the ball in the direction of No. 9 for Yokota. Frederick Guild now has seven interceptions in the Warriors' last two games. And he could have had more had he not dropped a pair of bunnies.
-- Memo to coaches in general: Keep the ball out of Torii's hands in the waning minutes of a game. Their last two starts, Saturday's loss at Yokota and an 8-6 defeat June 20 at Kadena, Torii drove the ball a total of 189 yards on two possessions in the closing minutes. THISclose to beating Kadena and made a game of it against the Warriors.
-- Playoffs three weeks away and it still looks wide open.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: June 29, 2009
Get your Grand Slam on. Almost time for Firecracker Shootout softball at Camp Foster, Okinawa. Coaches meet at 6 p.m.Wednesday at the Globe & Anchor, skills competition to follow, play begins Thursday, championship games on Sunday. 17 men's teams, 10 women's teams. Osan men and Korea Area I women to defend their championships; American Legion and Yard Busters seeking redemption for heartbreaking title-game losses last July. See you there!
By Dave Ornauer
Published: June 27, 2009
Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer patiently waits for "The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2)" to install:
-- Make your plans to travel to Okinawa (at this writing) come the week of Nov. 8-14. There's a new DODDS-Pacific Far East high school Class AA football playoff format in town. DODDS-Japan andOkinawa Activities Council champion, Seoul American and Guam High travel to Okinawa on Nov. 7, play semifinal games on Nov. 9, followed by the third-place and championship games on Nov. 14. Very much like Europe's Super 6.
-- No more rotating of semifinal and championship sites. No more having to double-book airline and billeting reservations. No more Guam High losing a $75 per head deposit for cancelling out of a trip.
-- Nice timing, too. While the teams are practicing, studying or (maybe) headed out to a cultural destination on island, you can fix your tennis Jones at the Far East Tournament at Kadena Air Base's Risner Tennis Complex.
-- On the Class A football front, nothing much changes, except for Zama American being added to the Japan fold, thanks to a drop in enrollment. The Trojans and perennial Class A titlist Robert D. Edgren now get to battle it out to see who represents Japan in the Class A title game against Osan American or Daegu American of South Korea. Korea's winner hosts the championship on Nov. 7.
-- Last month, we said farewell to refereeing icon John Zivic. Now, another familiar Okinawa sports "face" has left the island -- Steve Rowland, for 10 years the chief of Semper Fit programs for Marine Corps Community Services on Okinawa. Founding father of the Martin Luther King Invitational Basketball and Firecracker Shootout softball tournaments, longtime softball and football referee, he even found time to coach, along with Don Field, the Pacific Force softball juggernaut during his heyday of 1997-99. Pac Force won 10 of its record 39 titles consecutively those years, including all four in 1998, the only time one team swept all four in one calendar year.
-- Perhaps his and Pac Force's greatest achievement was putting seven players on the 1999 All-Armed Forces team. Starting outfielders Byron Randolph, Gary Chaney, Lonnie Dillard and Tommy Carlo, infielders Armando Delsi and Stu "Ice" Saylor and pitcher-assistant coach Nathan Hales.
-- Not since 2003 had all three scheduled U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League games been scratched due to transportation problems. It necessitated an overhaul of the league schedule; the regular season has been extended to July 18, the same day the playoffs begin; Foster is at Yokosuka in a battle of Southern vs. Northern Division leaders, while the No. 3 and No. 2 teams in each division slug it out for the right to face the division winners in the second round. The Torii Bowl has been pushed back to Aug. 22, but it could be played a week sooner.
-- The reason for the change: Giving teams enough time to make their transportation arrangements. Five games thus far this season have gotten the ax due to transportation problems.
-- BTW, that "The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2)" is taking FOR-EVAH to install. I could cook a steak, eat it and have time for dessert by the time that thing finishes. Modern technology is great when it works. Or to paraphrase Chicken Knows Best ... "Hi tech is gross."
-- Countdown has begun. 245 days.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: June 21, 2009
Musings, mutterings and the occasional bit of schmahts as Ornauer tries to put jet lag behind and point toward the USFJ-AFL playoffs and Firecracker Shootout softball tournament:
-- Sometimes, scoring help comes from the darndest places. With Torii Station lined up to punt on fourth down at the Wolfpack 24, Kadena rushes hard, Mike Christensen gets up a beefy arm and the ball clangs off it, into the hands of Jason Lane, who returned it 18 yards for the Dragons' lone touchdown. Jason Wynn's two-point conversion run just before halftime gave
Kadena the only points it would need in an 8-6 victory Saturday at Kadena's McDonald Stadium.
-- It was a defensive, turnover-filled struggle. The teams combined for 262 yards -- barely 2 1/2 trips down the field. Two Wolfpack fumble recoveries and an interception disrupted Kadena's first two possessions. One of the fumbles, recovered by Torii's Chris speed after Kadena's Andre Warren couldn't get the handle on a pun, set up the Wolfpack's lone touchdown, a 10-yard pass on fourth down by Speed to Jordan Frank. Warren and Eric Dagin intercepted Speed twice in the second half for Kadena.
-- It's all about practice. The teams that execute best on offense are the ones who have players showing up consistently for practice. Easy to type, tough to do, since these players' first job is to defend the country. But offensive execution is the result of study of the playbook, instruction by coaches and hour after hour of vigorous repetition on the practice field. "Run it again until you do it right!" coaches might admonish as a team goes over one single play for 90 minutes. It could mean the difference between the play not working and succeeding when a title is on the line.
-- I have yet to hear why the Southern Division's three coaches must be the ones to line McDonald Stadium prior to each game and why the grass can't be mowed. Pretty sad when varsity interservice athletics has fallen to that level. Sure, "core" programs such as company-level and youth sports and the primary goal of making GIs fit to fight are top priority. But there must be something left for the elite athlete to perform to his/her level in a competitive environment. And people and tools to support them.
-- Speaking of which, two-time Army letterman Richard E. Angle finally found his way back to the gridiron on Saturday, playing free safety for the Wolfpack. Now a colonel at Torii Station, Angle played cornerback and strong safety for four seasons for the Cadets from 1987-90, during which Army went 26-19 under then-coach Jim Young and lost a heartbreaker 29-28 to Alabama in the 1988 John Hancock Bowl. "First time I got to hit anybody in 20 years," he said, a tad out of breath, as he left the field following the first series.
-- It can be done; it's just going to be a tough road for Kadena. At 2-2, trailing South-leading Foster (4-0) by two games, the Dragons need to win their last two games, including beating Foster by four points or more on July 4, and hope that Foster also loses at Yokosuka on Saturday. That scenario would give Kadena a 1-point tiebreaker edge, the South title and a first-round playoff bye.
-- Defense also ruled the day for Yokosuka as the seven-time USFJ-AFL champion Seahawks claimed the North title by edging defending champion Misawa 7-6 on June 13 at Misawa Air Base. Anthony Seamans tossed a 49-yard pass to Morrison Gray to set up a quarterback-sneak touchdown and the Seahawks withstood several red-zone threats by the Jets.
-- Which can only leave Jets coach Jeremy Sanders scratching his head in wonder. Misawa's last three touchdowns have come on long passes. The Jets' last 10 visits inside the opponents' 20? Nada.
-- R.I.P. Richard L. Ornauer. I miss you.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: June 11, 2009
Richard L. Ornauer passed away peacefully at about 9 a.m. EDT Thursday, June 11, at Cortland Manor in Delaware. He was 86.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: June 8, 2009
Musings and mutterings as Ornauer prepares to head stateside:
-- Don't you just love a good rally? A total overhaul in gameplan led to just exactly that on Saturday for the Foster Bulldogs. Inserting Jamar Jarrell at tailback in place of hobbled starter Dyamon Durant and ditching the spread for a conventional I attack paid off huge for Foster, which rallied from a 12-3 deficit to beat Kadena 23-20.
-- With the win, Foster clinches the Southern Division title and a first-round playoff bye. With the playoffs four weeks away yet.
-- Memo to Foster coaching staff: Strongly suggest keeping Jarrell at tail and moving Durant to a slot back or receiver spot (when he gets healthy) to take advantage of Jarrell's bullrushing ability and Durant's lightning-quick moves.
-- Sure looks as if Corey Moore never met a touchdown catch he didn't like.
-- That Michael Redd (fumble recovery) continues to display a nose for the ball on defense.
-- That late touchdown catch by Kadena's Brandon Harris is just a taste of what the former Kadena Panthers high school speedster can do. Anybody remember four touchdowns on four second-half touches in the 2007 Far East Class AA football championship, Kadena 39, Yokota 13? Give that a read. That's what he can do if you takeeven oneplay off defensively against him.
-- That's about as perturbed as I've seen Kadena coach Will Cupp look in a long, long time. I would not want to be at practice this week as the Dragons prepare for Torii Station on Saturday.
-- We're to the point now where a coach whose team wasn't playing Saturday had to line the field, which resembled a cow pasture with its unmowed grass, and half the lights couldn't be turned on as late afternoon gave way to dusk?
-- You're joking, right?
-- What a sad state of affairs for interservice sports when it comes to that.
-- A week after coughing up eight turnovers in a 41-12 loss at Yokosuka, Yokota's Warriors showed signs of life, forcing five takeaways and holding off a spirited comeback to down the defending champion Misawa Jets 22-12 at Yokota's Bonk Field. Ryan Jones threw for 150 yards and Kevin Fortin and Dell Washington each ran for touchdowns as the offense came alive.
-- You said Frederick Guild snagged FIVE interceptions for Yokota?
-- You're kidding, right?
-- NOBODY intercepts five passes by himself in a single game.
-- Means that every last one of the 20 pass attempts by Jets QB Deron Frierson was caught by somebody. He completed 15 to his teammates for 152 yards, including touchdowns of 35 yards to Justin Hampton and 20 to Charles Salter.
Yokosuka visits Misawa at 2 p.m. and Kadena entertains Torii Station at 6 p.m. Saturday.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: June 4, 2009
New traffic on hereis going to slow considerably for the next couple of weeks.
My father, Richard L. Ornauer, 86, has suffered a series of strokes which have left him paralysed on his right side and unable to speak.
He is hospitalised in Dover, Delaware, where I will likely head later this week or early next week.
Please pray for him, pray for his doctors and their wisdom in caring for him, and pray thatmy dadwill encounter fortunate circumstances as he prepares for his next life's mission.
I love you, Pop. Fight on.
