By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 30, 2008
Mutterings and musings from Okinawa, as Ornauer can't contain his excitement at the prospect of a Mike Petty Track and Field Meet just days away:
-- Try this on: The top 10 finishers in the boys 100 meters at last Friday's Okinawa Activities Council triangular were separated by .82 seconds. The girls top six? By .63 seconds.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 30, 2008
Little movement this week, for many schools were on Easter break. Here we go:
Boys
1. Seoul Foreign (7-0). Idle this week; next big test Wednesday against Seoul American on Rivalry Day.
2. Kadena (2-5). Only defeat against Peru Nikei, a seriously strong club team.
3. Christian Academy In Japan (0-0). Knights open Wednesday by hosting 5-0 Zama American.
4. Zama American (5-0). Best start in school history.
5. Kubasaki (1-6). Don't read too much into this. Five Dragons losses have come against adult opposition. Next test Wednesday at home vs. Kadena.
6. Yokota (4-1). So far, so good. Jimmy Niescier is a rising star.
7. Yongsan International-Seoul (5-1). Idle this week; Guardians return to pitch Friday vs. Osan American.
8. Seoul American (7-1-1). Gotta overcome that Seoul Foreign squad Wednesday.
9. Nile C. Kinnick (3-1-2). Still on a solid winning course.
10. Seoul International (3-1-1). Idle this week; hosts Osan on Wednesday in return to pitch.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 26, 2008
Baseball and girls softball have yet to be added to the DODDS-Pacific Far East activities calendar.
The key reason: Money, or lack thereof. There simply isn't room in the budget, DODDS-Pacific's elders say, for baseball and softball in a fiduciary climate in which conferences, training and other activitieshave been slashed across the board. Not to mention a 7-year-old war on terror being fought on two fronts.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 23, 2008
SportsBlog Nation campers:
This works the same way as basketball -- your ultimate "dream team" to don your school's soccer uniforms regardless of year. Position, name of player and year they graduated.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 23, 2008
As promised, a bit sooner than I expected to do this ... the first appearance of high school soccer ratings in SportsBlog Nation.
As with basketball, and football in the fall, the ratings are based on strength of team, strength of schedule, individual talent, team talent, quality of victories and teams' history at Far East tournaments.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 20, 2008
Shirt-tailing on the smashing success of the Basketball Best Fives of the Last 25 Years on this space, 'tis time we attempt the same thing with the spring sport of soccer.
Bear in mind that Far East tournaments in soccer have only been in existence since 1998, and the inception of Class A tournaments didn't occur until 2002.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 20, 2008
No question, DODDS-Japan's developmental transition from slowpitch to fastpitch softball is the most unusual method ever seen in any sport in DODDS-Pacific's history.
Clinics and practice games designed to educate players, coaches and umpires on the differences between the two games and slowly bring everybody along to the point where they understand fastpitch and be ready to compete next year.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 16, 2008
Musings and mutteringsafter a weekend of dodging raindrops, when all sports in all areas saw action, one day past Idus Martiae and the 2,052nd anniversary of the demise of Julius Caesar (you can look it up. Gotta love Google):
-- The way newcomer Kaleb Robinson (.571, 10 runs, 13 RBIs) and holdovers Mike Fulwiler (.583, 3 doubles, 8 RBIs, 5 stolen bases) and Patrick Duffy (.500, 5 RBIs) are hitting, Kubasaki's baseball team isn't merely a threat to repeat its island championship -- Japanese teams better watch out also. Saturday's 8-6 win over Ginowan is proof positive of that. A team ERA of 2.42 over 26 innings isn't bad, either.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 16, 2008
Some may think the path from a Pacific-area high school to a college scholarship is too littered with obstacles to be traversed.
Too far for a coach or a scout to jump on a passenger jet to check out spoils that are too thin, when the same coach or scout can jump in a car and visit scads of schools within a four- or five-hour radius to see dozens of prospects. And you can't really judge what an athlete is truly like from a video or a scouting report.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 15, 2008
Hail to the winter season Athletes of the Quarter, wrestler Craig Bell of Matthew C. Perry and basketball point guard Monica Hayes of Kadena.
Not so much for what the stat sheet showed, Bell with his 37-0 record and first gold medal in Perry's history, or Hayes for her 10.3 points and 7.5 rebounds and Kadena's third Class AA Tournament title in six years.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 9, 2008
Musings and mutterings from the first full weekend of spring sports as Ornauer tears apart the kitchen seeking coffee:
All those years of perfecting the art of keeping the soccer ball out of Kadena's net, then to step to the front and knock a shot into somebody else's.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 9, 2008
One of the concerns that were brought to me when this blog began last spring was that a person might hide behind the name of a coach, an athletics director or some high-placed position, and post messages that don't meet my criteria of: 1)Staying on topic and 2) Avoiding personal attacks.
That precise scenario happened in the last day.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 7, 2008
Dickens probably didn't have the Pacific's Class A soccer pitch in mind when he wrote "A Tale of Two Cities." But where E.J. King's boys and Osan American's girls were concerned last year, the title applied quite appropriately.
It was the best of times for the Cobras boys, who struck Far East tournament gold behind the solid defensive play of guys like David Heitstuman and goalkeeper Demond Dean, after having gone 4-25-2 the two seasons prior.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 7, 2008
So, who will shine the brightest on the Pacific's soccer pitches?
The 2008 season begins in earnest this weekend, with matches dotting the landscape in Nagoya, Camp Zama, Iwakuni and Yokosuka in Japan; Camp Foster on Friday and Kadena High School on Saturday on Okinawa; and at Osan, Seoul and Daegu American schools Friday and Saturday.
