By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 27, 2008
Gad, so many great performances to choose from. So many people did so many wonderful things during this winter sports season.
On March 16, Stripes will honour its Athletes of the Quarter for the winter sports season.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 26, 2008
Sure had fun with this. We'll do the same with soccer ratings, starting at the end of March.
Here's the last of the basketball ratings:
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 24, 2008
Musings and mutterings from the Dragon Hill Lodge on Yongsan Garrison, as Ornauer looks around for the guy who sells the eye toothpicks:
-- Many contributed to Seoul American's boys' third Class AA Tournament title in six years, perhaps none greater than senior Shawn Grandy. His chief ingredient: Defense, particularly his third-quarterclampdown on Kadena's Jamil Barney, who simply played an unconscious first half.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 22, 2008
Each Far East High School Class A Basketball Tournament awards ceremony held something in common -- players receiving MVP awards who played for teams that did not win championships.
Brandon Spencer was so honored from sixth-place Daegu American in the boys tournament. On the girls' side,Leyna Arbour has garnered the award in consecutive years for second-place International School of the Sacred Heart.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 20, 2008
Three days down, two to go in Class A, three in Class AA:
-- Is there anybody out there ... anybody ... who doesn't believe that Kadena will meet Seoul American in the Girls Class AA championship game?
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 20, 2008
Single-elimination basketball playoffs: Total sense of urgency. Bring your 'A' game every time.Far Eastis, after all, a state tournament. The bad: Eliminated on the first day and have to think of all kinds of creative things as a coach to keep your players motivated and interested.
Double-elimination basketball playoffs: A second chance if a team has an off-game. True test. Cream eventually rises to the top, anyway. The bad: Too few teams end up playing too many games in the last couple of days; you can only give up to third place at tournament's end.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 18, 2008
Boy, these are heady times in Daegu American Warrior country.
Two days off the best finish in school history in the Far East High School Wrestling Tournament (seven out of 11 wrestlers medal), Brandon Spencer and the Warriors boys basketball team knocks off a juggernaut on Monday, a 71-52 win over Faith Academy's boys basketball team.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 15, 2008
Musings and mutterings from Day 3 of the 2008 DODDS-Pacific Far East High School Wrestling Tournament:
-- Time to call Kadena a dynasty? They've finished second, first, third and first in the last four individual freestyle team title chases. Pantherland has done well, going from five wrestlers in the practice room -- Kubasaki's -- in 1996 to three banners today. With the dual-meet phase of the tournament still to come Saturday.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 14, 2008
Congratulations, Emily Albonetti, the Osan American 108-pound senior girl wrestler who made Far East High School Tournament history on Thursday.
For the record, the moment came at 2:03 p.m. Thursday, when Albonetti stepped off the mat after pinning Champaigne Tatman of Robert D. Edgren in 2 minutes, 31 seconds. She became the first girl to sign a bout sheet as the bout's victor in the 33-year history of the tournament.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 12, 2008
Turns out there was little debate during Tuesday's pre-tournament coaches' meeting after all in the Lanai Room at the Awase Meadows Golf Course restaurant.
After all the disagreement over the new double-elimination format in the run-up to theFar East High School Wrestling Tournament,coaches decided to give it a chance, if not fully embrace it.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 10, 2008
Matthew C. Perry, boys
Mike Hester, F-G, Class of 1996
Jeremy Eck, C, Class of 2000 (all 6-foot-7 of him)
Justin McCloskey, G, Class of 2000
Nate Albia, G, Class of 2004 (part of the five-player Samurai team in the Class A tournament)
Julio Rodriguez, F, Class of 2007
Matthew C. Perry, girls
Nikki Blackman, G, Class of 1988
Vicki Foster, C, Class of 1990
Tia Fluellen, G, Class of 2002
Cortaza Hall, F-G, Class of 2002
Ashley Taylor, F, Class of 2007
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 10, 2008
We begin the DODDS-Korea segment with that "tiny but mighty" school in the nation's southeastern corner that is, alas, now little more than a memory:
Pusan American, boys
Mike Webb, F, Class of 1983 (won first Class A tournament).
Robert Fleming, F, Class of 1985.
Chuck Sands, G, Class of 1988.
Moses Joh, G, Class of 2006.
James Edwards, C, Class of 2006>
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 9, 2008
Going by individual weight classes. Please allow for last-minute changes by coaches to maximise their team's chances. A recordsix girls will enter this week's Far East tournament on Okinawa. Don't sleep on a one of 'em. They're there to compete, and expect at least one to go up to the podium to have a medal placed on their neck.
These are in no particular order. Who does SportsBlog Nation favor? Who did Ornauer leave out?
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 9, 2008
OCSI is one of a handful of international schools with a goodly number of ID card holders. With special thanks to longtime Crusaders multi-sport coach and former All-Air Force volleyball player and coach David Lacar:
Okinawa Christian International, boys
Mark Esparza, Class of 1992
King Har, Class of 1997
Jamie Holland, Class of 1998
Toni Arakaki, Class of 2000
Toussaint Dupree, Class of 2000
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 8, 2008
A mish-mash of various international schools from around the region, with a combined 30 (!!!) DODDS-Pacific Far East High School Tournament titles.
Morrison Christian Academy, Taiwan, boys
Keith Winslow, center, Class of 1985
Stephen Titus, guard, Class of 1995
Jeff McKay, forward, Class of 2004
Greg Grobler, guard, Class of 2005
Elliot Tan, point guard, Class of 2000
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 8, 2008
We'll follow with Okinawa Christian International shortly. For now, here's Okinawa's DODDS entries:
Kadena, boys
Joe Hardy, center, Class of 1984 (first reserve player ever to be named Class AA tournament MVP).
Robert Weeks, guard, Class of 1991.
Royce Shipman, guard, Class of 1996.
Josh Whitney, guard, Class of 1999 (he of the famed Lorenzo Mills alley-oop pass and dunk to clinch the 1999 Class AA title game).
Z'aire Jackson, Class of 2005.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 7, 2008
As long promised, here is Part I ofOrnauer's selectedPacific high school basketball Best Fives of the last 25 years, or when he began covering DODDS-Pacific Far East Tournaments in 1982.
This is just the start. Much more to come.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 7, 2008
Expect a major format change to next week's DODDS-Pacific Far East High School Wrestling Tournament at Okinawa's Camp Foster.
Organizers at host Kubasaki High School will implement a double-elimination format for the individual freestyle portion of the tournament.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 6, 2008
Call these a pre-call to Far East basketball tournamentMVP voting. Ballot follows. Feel free to write-in. :)
Boys
Kadena -- Josh Greggs, Jamil Barney, Roosevelt Payne, other.
Kubasaki -- Chris Cooke, Jacorian Callier, other.
Seoul American -- Daniel Burns, Raidion Fails, Chris Churchwell, Chris DeFrancisco, other.
Yokota -- DeEric Harvin, Riki Byrnes, Anthony McNeill, other.
Nile C. Kinnick -- Keith Ross, T.J. Jones Jr., Sam Green Jr., other.
Zama American -- Anthony Caple, Sean Wise, Nelson Bishop, other.
Robert D. Edgren -- Zach Latimore, Brandon Bledsoe, other.
Guam High -- Derek Wiltz, D'Andre Weaver, other.
E.J. King -- Fernando Rico, Keith Williams, Marquis Singletary, Dominique Johnson, other.
Osan American -- Sean Moye, Warren Beckman, Dan Arnold, Adonte' Murry, other.
Daegu American -- Brandon Spencer, Angel Hickman, Antonio Harris, other.
Seoul Foreign -- Pete Nielsen, Aaron Kearney, Chris Oak, other.
American School In Japan -- Seaun Eddy, other.
St. Mary's International -- Tobi Taniguchi, Sean Durham, other.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 6, 2008
A hardwood spin on the matchup multiple-choice question we posed during football season.
One for wrestling coming up in the next day or so.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 3, 2008
It gets even better from here. Remember, you've entered THE "no-hate zone." *smile*
Boys
1. Seoul American, 39-7.Winning streak ends at nine, but Falcons still in full flight.
2. Zama American (Japan),20-4.Winning streak ends at eight at Yokota's hands; Friday's rematch at Zama should be a good one.
3. Seoul Foreign, 22-4.Ran the table at the Asia-Pacific Activities Conference tournament.
4. Kadena (Okinawa), 26-13. Two flat games after winning the Okinawa-American Shootout.
5. American School In Japan, 9-2.Stubbed toe against St. Mary's International, which is starting to make noise again.
6. Kubasaki (Okinawa), 21-12. Slowly, Dragons are righting the ship again.
7, E.J. King (Japan), 16-6.That 101-92 double-overtime loss to Kinnick just the latest chapter in Cobras-Red Devils rivalry. Remember the buzzer-beating Cobras win at Kinnick on Jan. 11?
8.Faith Academy (Philippines), 17-6.Is a Cobras-Vanguards Class A tournament final in the cards?.
9. St. Paul Christian (Guam), 8-0. Or perhaps the Warriors are in the hunt?
10. Daegu American (South Korea), 11-4. These Warriors might complete the Class A Final Four tableau.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: February 3, 2008
Musings on the mat and hardwood as we hit the home stretch toward Far East Tournament time:
Don't look now, but Nile C. Kinnick's girls basketball team is on fire. The Red Devils won all four games last week, with senior guard Carl'Meisha Wourman averaging 16.8 points and 11 steals per game.
