Things learned, observed on Day 1 of 2011 Firecracker Shootout

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer rejoices the first rain-free opening day of the Firecracker Shootout in quite some time:

For complete first-day results, schedule and photos, click here.

Might as well start at the beginning. And what a beginning we had to the 2011 Firecracker Shootout Pacificwide interservice softball tournament.

A real opening ceremony!

With much pomp and command presence.

Lynn Kimble, the Marine Corps Bases Japan and stations command sergeant major, addressing the masses and throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

Navy Lt. Robert J. Gelinas, Marine Corps Base Camp Butler chaplain, leading the invocation.

And the III Marine Expeditionary Force Band (well, at least part of it) playing Kimigayo and the Star Spangled Banner, the national anthems of Japan and the States, among other musical numbers.

This is the sort of thing you’d have seen prior to the Marine Far East Regionals back in the 1970s and ‘80s, before the budget ax fell on things like a welcome mixer and a post-tournament banquet. The kind where the participants were expected to arrive in dress uniform. Steak, baked potatoes and steamed veggies. The III MEF band playing throughout. Lavish trophies presented by the Marine Corps Bases Japan commanding general.

Whoever pressed Marine Corps Community Services Semper Fit athletics and the Gunners Fitness & Sports Complex to do an opening ceremony, pat yourself on the back. Great idea. Let’s do this for all MCCS-sponsored regional or Pacificwide tournaments on island.
___

That said, it’s rather disappointing to see so few teams from off-island participating in the event. Of the 23 teams in play, you have just two women’s and four men’s teams coming from outside of Okinawa to participate.

Where are Yongsan Garrison, Camp Humphreys and Osan Air Base? Where’s talent-rich Daegu/Area IV’s women’s team? Why couldn’t Kunsan Air Base’s men’s team make it in time for their scheduled Thursday opening game?

Well aware am I of the budget ax that’s falling on all facets of military life, to the tune of $400 billion in cuts that President Barack Obama has mandated the Department of Defense make.

There is one aspect of the DOD budget that should never face cuts. I’m talking about the $1.75 billion dollar taxpayer-funded All-Armed Forces sports industry.

It’s the program that will send competitors to Rio de Janeiro for the International Military Sports Council (CISM) World Games scheduled for July 16-24. Only the second-largest sports event in the world behind the Olympic Games. The U.S.’s best military athletes on display against the best of the rest of the world, many countries sending the same athletes to both CISM and the Olympics.

It’s the program that puts the best of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps on the same field of competition to earn service pride as an All-Armed Forces champion team, but at the end of the day reminding one and all that we’re all on the same team, preparing for defense of our country.

It’s a vital recruiting and retention program. Shows that an eager young recruit, perhaps a star athlete in high school or college, who has just enlisted or gotten a commission and sees an office, flight-line or foxhole mate leaving to compete for his or her All-Service team, and realizing that it’s possible to both compete in their discipline and represent their various service as well.

Or perhaps can attract the attention of a high school student during a visit by one of those All-Service teams to the community and convinces that student that they can do the same.

It pains me to think of how many elite military athletes we’ll lose to the civilian sector, getting out to play their trade for some company and playing basketball or softball for some club team on weekends, because a base command or higher made a short-term decision to slice their base’s varsity sports budget, a decision that will have long-term effects on their ability to keep quality people in uniform.

The afore-mentioned bases have plenty of such athletes, who will now not get the chance to make that “final audition,” hoping they can ramp up their game in time for next month’s All-Service tryout camps and a shot at the All-Armed Forces tournament in September.

A real shame.
___

One of those four off-island men’s teams actually set a record for longest distance traveled to the Firecracker Tournament.

OK, so the Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 553 Hawks out of Beaufort, S.C., didn’t travel to Okinawa just for the tournament; they’re on unit deployment program to the island, and will remain here for two more weeks.

Given the chance to enter the tournament, they took it, realizing fully well that they’re going up against powerhouse open teams such as American Legion and Club Red of Okinawa. “We’ve played them, so we know,” said VMFA (AW) 553 player Brian Condon.
___

Generally, you find them overseeing the base newspaper’s operation, dispatching reporters to cover maneuvers in the field, running a speaker’s bureau, arranging band tours and escorting visiting media covering on-base events, among other things.

But never in my 31 years covering interservice sports for Stripes have I ever seen a public affairs office as one enter one of these Pacific interservice Grand Slam softball tournaments, until the good crew from Building 1 on Camp Foster, the Marine Corps Bases Japan PAO, entered this week’s Firecracker.

All but four members of the team work for MCBJ PAO. Three of them, Jack Norton, Lindsay Pirek and Jordan Cochran, are first lieutenants who work with media such as Stripes, answering queries, delivering news releases and, in some cases, escorting them around Marine Corps bases on Okinawa to help them with story assignments.

“Just to have fun,” Cochran said of why PAO entered the tournament as “No Glove, No Love.”

At first, they thought they were entering just another on-island tournament, playing a small handful of games over four days … until they saw the tournament schedule, which has them playing games at all hours of the day.

“That was a big surprise,” Cochran said. “Most people are used to standing fire watch and things like that, so this is pretty similar.”

Other members of the team are former U.S. Naval Hospital Camp Lester sports chief Claude Copeland, now a senior chief petty officer assigned to 1^st Marine Aircraft Wing.

Then, there’s one of Stripes’ own, Matt Orr of the Okinawa News Bureau. He picked up a glove and bat for the very first time in Thursday’s 22-1 loss to 1^st Battalion 1^st Special Forces Group of Torii Station.

Why such a late bloomer? Orr is a fair dinkum (Australian for “sporting lad”) who hails from Sydney, and is more used to playing such sports as cricket and rugby.

“He’s the ‘Thunder from Down Under,’” Norton said.
___

• Read More
• Comments

Things learned, observed in USFL-AFL Week 5.0

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer thanks the grace of the wind gods for exiting Okinawa as quickly as they did last weekend:

-- It seems as if this happens every three years in Misawa interservice football country, they put together a team capable of contending for and winning a U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League Torii Bowl title.

-- First, it was 2002, when the then-Misawa Marauders put together a solid defensive team, led by end Woody Carter, linebacker Courtney “Cornbean” Haralson and safety Josh Morris under coach Robert Harris. They went all the way to the Torii Bowl title game, which they lost at Yokosuka.

-- The breakthrough came at home on Aug. 27, 2005, when running back Jamey “Boobie” Crawford, two-way star Mark Fox, interception-minded Clarence Carey, coach J.D. Hemphill and the smashmouth Marauders raced to a 30-7 lead, then held off upset-minded Yokota 30-21 for the Marauders’ first league title.

-- Three years later, Sept. 13, 2008, the Marauders had morphed into the Jets, the base’s official mascot, and under coach Jeremy Sanders stepped out of their ground-pounding character  to go to the air, as quarterback Darone Frierson accounted for both touchdowns and Misawa avenged that 2002 Yokosuka loss 12-6. That was the game that sent Seahawks linebacking great Mike Favors into retirement for good; he’d played for champion teams at Yokosuka and Atsugi every season since 1997, until that fateful September day.

-- Now, in 2011, the Jets have again stepped to the plate as a title contender. Quarterback Douglas Brown accounted for three touchdowns and Misawa rallied from a 16-12 halftime deficit to hang a 24-22 defeat on defending champion Yokota, clinching the North Division regular-season title in the process.

-- So, with the league having decided in mid-spring to stage the Torii Bowl at the site of the North Division champion, the road to the title has definitely detoured to the league’s most remote location.

-- Those with a sense of history know this doesn’t bode well for the rest of the league. Two Torii Bowl titles in two tries on the Jets’/Marauders’ home turf. If Misawa wins out, including the North Division title game on Aug. 6, the South Division champion must make a two-legged trip from Okinawa to a Kanto Plain airport, then another flight or train trip or bus ride to Misawa.

-- It’s never been easy for any team traveling inter-area within this league. With all the marbles on the line in the Torii Bowl, slated for Aug. 20, it will take every key player that the South champion has to make the trip north.

-- Foster, which clinched the South Division regular-season title on Saturday by winning 20-6 at Kadena, is scheduled to travel to Misawa for an inter-division contest on July 23, with proceeds from concession sales and otherwise going to the March 11 Tohoku-Kanto earthquake and tsunami relief effort. You know the Bulldogs will do everything they can to get to Misawa, but twice in four weeks?

-- That, of course, is assuming Foster and Misawa, each 3-0, will not be stayed from the swift completion of that appointed round of games in advance of the Torii Bowl.

-- Misawa has one more regular-season game to go, at Yokosuka on July 9, then the Jets travel to Kadena on the 16th and host Foster on the 23rd. Foster has one more clash with Joint Task Force, last year’s South champion, before heading north to face the Jets. The playoffs begin July 30 with the third place-at-second place first-round games, then the division finals on Aug. 6.

-- As for Foster, well, after Saturday’s game at Kadena – played in occasional rainshowers and wind gusts as high at 50 mph – several Bulldogs defensive players visited with me on the sideline and made it as clear as a Nubian sun: “Don’t throw on Foster.”

-- They have good reason to say that. The 2009 Torii Bowl champions have played three games, all victories, and have recorded 11 interceptions.

-- And talk about your showers of Flowers power – Wylie Flowers, that is – who intercepted three passes, two by Jason Young on consecutive second-half possessions, the first of which he ran back 92 yards for a touchdown.

-- And his head’s up play on special teams kept alive a drive that resulted in the Bulldogs’ final touchdown. Flowers fell on a punt that was muffed by a Kadena return- team up man. Two plays later Foster quarterback James Sanford hit Ricky Shorter from 49 yards out to cap Foster’s scoring.

-- And this Flowers cat … he started the season as a receiver, but converted to cornerback to bolster the Bulldogs’ defensive strength. He’s matched his output on offense; his lone reception was a 14-yard touchdown catch against Kadena the first time the teams met.

-- Defense wasn’t limited to ball-hogging in the secondary. The Dragons’ single-wing attack piled up 291 rushing yards in the teams’ first encounter; on Saturday, Kadena managed just 83 total offensive yards.

-- Credit Foster’s defense for that, yes, but also … where was the push off the line from Kadena’s offensive front? The Bulldogs’ interior had its way with the Dragons all game long; the stats are proof positive of that.

-- Any coach will tell you: Execute in the interior and you have a chance to win.

-- So now, Yokota is left with a home game against Yokosuka on July 16; if the Warriors win, they host Yokosuka again in the first-round playoff game on July 30.The Seahawks have to beat Yokota by 36 points or more for a shot at hosting that first-round game.

-- Down south, JTF needs a five-point victory or more over Kadena on July 9 at Kubasaki High School’s Upper Field if it wants a chance at hosting the first-round playoff game. Travel isn’t as much an issue for JTF as it is the North teams, but there is something to be said for “having the hammer,” as is said of being the home team.

-- No games this weekend. Catch you at Gunners Fitness & Sports Complex over the July 4th weekend for the Firecracker Shootout.

244 days.

• Read More
• Comments

Far East Division I football playoffs, other Far East tournament changes

For the second time in three years, Far East Division I football playoffs have undergone wholesale changes. Wanna find out how they've been revamped, and also where next school year's Far East tournaments are going to be? Click here to get the whole shooting match. And have a great summer!

• Read More
• Comments

Oki Ice heating up

It was only supposed to be a weekend series of games between Oki Ice, Okinawa’s senior youth basketball club program, and a collection of high- and middle-school ballers from Yokota Air Base and Camp Zama.

Talk about something that took on a life of its own.

If you were anywhere in the vicinity of the Foster Field House on Friday or Saturday, you might have seen several of the 13 American and Japanese hoops teams that gathered for the first Oki Ice Shootout.

Many of them were the usual foes faced by Kadena’s and Kubasaki’s boys and girls teams – yes, Oki Ice has a girls team now – in December, January and February.

Oki Ice, in its second year under the direction of former three-time All-Army and current Kadena boys coach Ray Broughton, features players from both Kubasaki and Kadena, a rarity when it comes to the most bitter of DODDS Pacific high school rivals. It’s produced two players, Kadena’s Jason Sumpter and Kubasaki’s Kentrell Key, who’ve gone on to accept partial scholarships to play stateside college ball.

The Yokota-Zama group featured players from both communities, again a rarity among two programs that are considered the chief Kanto Plain and DODDS Japan basketball rivals. Nice to see players like Jonathan Neyland and Andre Encarnacion putting their skills to the test.

And yes, the Foster Field House was hot, but so, too, was the action. Oki Ice’s boys and girls each reached their respective championship games on Saturday, the boys beating Kitanakagusuku 61-40 and the girls falling 40-36 to Maehara.

• Read More
• Comments

Things learned, observed in USFJ-AFL Week 4.0

UPDATED at 3 p.m. Monday.

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer contemplates one of the more improbable comebacks he’s seen in his 30 years of covering interservice football:

Perhaps it was that gust of wind which preceded that surprise rain shower that drenched Habu Field at Ryukyu Middle School just past 8:30 p.m. Saturday. A wind of change, perhaps, change to one of the most mortal hammer-lock outcomes in U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League Southern Division history that in an instant cut on a dime and gave us nine cents change.

It wasn’t so much the Kadena Dragons rallying from a three-touchdown deficit to edge Joint Task Force 22-18, scoring all 22 points in the final 13:09. It was the twists, turns, nooks, crannies, breaks and more breaks that came each team’s way and what they did with them that made the contest so painfully amazing.

Let’s revisit, starting from Enrique Menendez’s 24-yard run that put the Wolf Pack ahead 6-0 4:54 into the contest.

1) Hypothesis: On the ensuing possession, Kentrell Mc Coy of JTF covered a Kadena fumble, setting up the Wolf Pack at the Dragons’ 28. Four plays later, Menendez ripped off a 3-yard TD run to make it 12-0. Conclusion: Dragons must take better care of the football. Wolf Pack simply did what any good football team should do when handed a break, take advantage of it.

2) Hypothesis: At the start of the second quarter, Joint Task Force punts from its 38-yard line, Kadena muffs the ball, Wolf Pack’s Antwan Stokes grabs it at the Dragons 16 and runs into the end zone. Touchdown is called back; referees ruled kicking team cannot advance a recovered muffed ball. Drive ends on a fake field-goal try that came up a yard short of a first down. Conclusions: Referees ruled correctly. Wolf Pack came up one yard short of taking advantage of another break.

3) Hypothesis: Kadena punts from its own 4-yard line on fourth-and-16, and does what the Dragons insisted they’d avoid doing throughout the contest, punting it away from dangerous Wolf Pack returner Kent Onuoha, the former Kansas State sprinter. So what does Onuoha do? Returns it 42 yards for a score … BUT … the touchdown is called back on a block-in-the-back penalty. Conclusion: Kadena dodged a huge bullet; Wolf Pack must do a better job of blocking upfield, re: practice special teams as much as it can.

4) Hypothesis: Kadena fails to get off a punt on fourth-and-10 at its 27, a bad snap putting the ball at the Dragons’ 17. A personal foul penalty compounds the problem, pushing the ball half-distance to the goal line at the Kadena 8½-yard line. Two plays later, JTF QB Jonathan Gibbs finds tight end Lamar King, Kubasaki Class of 2009, in the end zone from 10 yards out. The ball appeared to be deflected before King caught it. Kadena’s coaching staff argued that King was an ineligible receiver due to the formation the Wolf Pack used; the referees conferred and ruled the touchdown good. Conclusion: The formation, though unusual with the tight end lined up on the opposite side of the flanker back, looked legal to me. And it would not have been an issue if the Dragons had taken better care of the football on special teams.

5) Hypothesis: JTF suffers its own share of punt-team yips, a bad snap putting Kadena at the Wolf Pack 40. On fourth-and-11 at the JTF 41, the Wolf Pack gives Kadena another chance on a pass-interference penalty, putting the ball at the 26. Two plays later, Eric Lorenzo catches a 23-yard touchdown pass, leaping between two players to make the grab and cutting JTF’s lead to 18-8. Conclusion: Again, better execution on special teams could have averted this altogether, as could playing the ball instead of playing the man on pass coverage.

6) Hypothesis: Patrick Akern tries to tackle Gibbs on a third-and-15 at Kadena’s 30, but instead pries the ball loose and into the hands of Kadena linebacker Randy Lambert, who gallops 56 yards for the touchdown that shrinks JTF’s lead to four points. Conclusion: Better pass blocking renders this moot. As for Kadena’s defensive heroics, equal parts good head’s up play and sheer luck.

7) Hypothesis: Kadena’s Mike Christensen blocks a JTF punt at the Wolf Pack’s 11 with 1:11 left. Two plays later, quarterback Kelvin Lewis, seeing his receivers covered, darts right, then left out of the pocket and skirts left end toward the pylon at the goal line for a touchdown with 27 seconds left. Kadena 22-, JTF 18. Conclusion: Once again, better execution on special teams renders the whole point moot. And solid, head’s up play by Christensen and Lewis, once more taking advantage of what the opposing team gives you.

8) Hypothesis: Kadena wins despite being outgained 190-95 on offense. Conclusion: Doesn’t matter how the point get there; the numbers on the scoreboard matter far more than the other statistics.

9) Hypothesis: Kadena won despite giving up six turnovers and four quarterback sacks. Conclusion: JTF didn’t do so well themselves, giving up four turnovers and three sacks, plus the blocked punt that set up the game-winning touchdown.

10) Hypothesis: Kadena lost to Foster the week before despite gaining 291 yards on the ground; against JTF, the Dragons mustered just 24 on 43 rushes. Conclusion: Practice, practice, practice. Division-leading Foster, the Dragons’ next opponent, won’t be as forgiving.

11) Hypothesis: JTF lost despite being seemingly in control for the game’s first 46:51. Conclusion: The 13th-century Buddhist saint, Nichiren, once wrote that it’s important for people to be the masters of their minds, instead of letting their minds master them. Whatever happened on the JTF sideline at the start of the fourth quarter, whether it was the bad punt snap or the pass-interference call that led to Kadena’s first touchdown, the Wolf Pack clearly lost their poise and let their minds master them. That can’t happen if they hope to repeat their South title of a year ago.

Finally, a big shoutout to Gerald Sharber, The Foster coach came through in a huge way when one of those things taken for granted, the yard markers, down box and chains, weren't immediately available to Saturday's host team, Kadena; Sharber made his available on late notice. That's the kind of get-along, go-along premise upon which the USFJ-AFL was founded back in 2000, rivals on the field who help each other in time of need. Way to come through, G.

252 days. 

• Read More
• Comments

... And Key, Sanchez and Sumpter make 11

Kubasaki Dragons senior center Kentrell Key puts ink to paper as he signs a national letter of intent for a partial scholarship to NCAA Division II Elizabeth City State (N.C.) University. With Key are, clockwise from left, Okinawa Basketball Association founder George Griffin, Key's high school coach Jon Fick and Key's father, Wilburt Jr.

Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes

Buy a print

Kubasaki Dragons senior center Kentrell Key became the ninth DODDS Pacific student-athlete to sign a national letter of intent to play for a stateside university or college next school year.

Also coming across this blogger's desk in the last day or so, Tomas Sanchez, a Kadena senior cross-country and middle-distance track star, became the 10th to sign a letter of intent. Classmate Jason Sumpter, a basketball power forward, became the 11th.

With Okinawa Basketball Association founder George Griffin, Key's high school coach Jon Fick and Key's father, Wilburt Jr., watching at a ceremony last month in Kubasaki’s information center, Key signed for a partial scholarship to NCAA Division II Elizabeth City State (N.C.) University; the partial scholarship will cover 75 percent of the total cost, Key's father said.

Key helped lead the Dragons to their Pacific-record 10th Far East High School Division I Tournament title in February at Guam's Andersen Air Force Base.

He'll play for a Vikings team that went 20-8 and lost in the second round of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament last March.

Sumpter in his two seasons in black-and-gold led the Panthers to the school's ninth D-I Tournament title in 2010 and third place in 2011.

Sumpter will play for NCAA Division II Maryville University in St. Louis. The Saints, who play in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, went 7-19 overall and 3-15 league last season.

Sanchez, the Okinawa district record-holder in the 800, will run that same discipline next spring for NCAA Division III U.S. Merchant Marine Academy of Kings Point, on the north shore of Long Island within sight of the Throgs Neck, Triboro and Whitestone bridges separating the island from the Bronx.

USMMA tried to recruit both Sanchez and his distance partner Jacob Bishop as a tandem, but Bishop opted to attend school in his home state of Utah. The Mariners run in the Landmark Conference.

Sumpter and Sanchez each received partial offers that cover 25 percent of the total cost of admission.

Key, Sumpter and Sanchez join the following group of DODDS-Pacific student-athletes to earn a full or partial scholarship to a stateside university next school year:

• Kristina Bergman (volleyball, Division II Central Oklahoma) and Angie Robinet (soccer, NAIA Point Park, Pa.) of Daegu American.
• Jordan Elliott (basketball, Division I U.S. Military Academy at West Point), Colton Heckerl (baseball, NAIA Menlo College of California) and Destinee Harrison (volleyball, Division I Howard) of Seoul American.
• Reid Henderson (golf, Division III Maryville College of Tennessee) of Kadena.
• David Bailey (soccer, Division II Colorado Christian) of NIle C. Kinnick.
• Bre'Onna Ray (soccer, Chandler-Gilbert Community College of Arizona) of Matthew C. Perry.

• Read More
• Comments

Athletes of the Year: Kadena's Smith, Seoul's Gleaves scale highest heights

They spent their entire senior school years lifting themselves and their teams to new heights … literally and figuratively:

-- Lotty Smith moved from fullback to quarterback and helmed Kadena’s football team to its second straight Far East Division I title, helped the Panthers to a bronze-medal D-I Basketball Tournament finish, then became the first Pacific high jumper to clear 2 meters in leading Kadena to a Far East Track and Field Meet team gold medal.

• Read More
• Comments

Things learned, observed in USFJ-AFL Week 3.0

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer shakes his head in wonder at the whole new level of heat he discovered Saturday at Gunners Field 6 on Camp Foster:

-- Why? Why a 1 p.m. start on Saturday at Field 6 under what could only charitably be described as hot as Hades conditions?

-- I know by U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League rule, the home team gets the chance to designate where and when they play a scheduled game, provided the proper permission to use the field is secured by whomever owns it.

-- But 1 p.m. with temperatures in the 90s and the sun blazing down on one and all? Why threaten the health of the very people you’re giving an opportunity to play football?

-- Fortunately, nobody suffered from heat-related illness during that furnace. But somebody very easily could have.

-- Nobody asked me, but I believe the South Division should schedule any and all games during summer months for 6 p.m. starts, or at the very least no later than 4 p.m.

-- Even on fields that aren’t lit, a 4 p.m. start can accommodate a 60-minute game; the sun doesn’t set on Okinawa until nearly 7:30 p.m. these days.

-- Yes, I griped about it very loudly to the coaches of both teams prior to the start of Saturday’s Kadena at Foster game. One of Foster’s players overheard my rant and mentioned something about how you have to be prepared for such circumstances in war.

-- Good point. Those locales where that new form of interservice sports, sand-castle building, has been ongoing for 10 years, aren’t exactly known for their brand of cool weather, save for the mountains of Afghanistan or Uzbekistan and mostly at night or in winter.

-- But where football is concerned, at least you have control over the start time and the weather conditions in which you choose to play. War doesn’t afford that luxury.

-- Call me a wuss, if you choose. No, in my nearly 37 years in government service, I’ve never deployed, I’ve never fired a shot in anger, nor have I ever gone to war (and no, VFW members, just because I spent a year stationed in Korea doesn’t mean I “went to war;” to me, you have to have more than your big toe nails over the line). Hot weather bugs me, even after drinking close to two gallons of water, fruit juice and sports beverage before and during the game. So, feel free to call me a wuss.

-- Fortunately, Kadena hosts the next two USFJ-AFL South games and has indicated it will play them on a lighted field starting at 6 p.m. And the press box at one of them does have A/C.

-- Again, call me a wuss. I’ll proudly wear the label.

-- OK, so during the South Division’s furnace that was Foster’s 30-14 win over Kadena, both teams truly stepped out of character to accomplish what the Bulldogs ultimately did and what the Dragons hope they can do in the future.

-- Foster for its three USFJ-AFL seasons has always been known as a passing team, with ex-Bulldogs star passer Franklin Bryant and his successor James Sanford tossing aerials to a bevy of receivers such as Roger Veal, Quentin White, Nekory Moorer, Ricky Shorter and the recently retired Corey Moore, now the team’s “general manager.”

-- But the Bulldogs’ running game found itself on Saturday.

-- Big time.

-- Relatively speaking, of course; Kadena’s ground game outgained Foster’s 291-222. But more on that later.

-- Foster remarkably did not score a single touchdown in the air. Every one of its points, except on one two-point conversion pass, came on the ground, 20 of them on three touchdown runs and a two-point run by fullback Madison Axel.

-- Axel ran for 69 yards on nine carries. Onterrio Woods, who scored the other touchdown, gained 61 yards on eight carries, and Moorer led the team with 76 yards on eight attempts.

-- That doesn’t mean the Bulldogs have abandoned their air attack completely – Sanford did go 7-for-11 for 136 yards, and Veal caught four passes for 61 yards.

-- It simply means the Foster quarterback is doing more than throwing their shoulders and elbows sore by making 60 passing attempts per game.

-- And it means – and this is bad news for the rest of the league – opposing defenses can’t focus on shutting down receivers because the backs will scorch them. They can’t clamp down on the ground game and dare the Bulldogs to beat them in the air because they will. All you can do is play it straightaway … and pray.

-- Give Kadena’s quarterbacks a tad more experience and if they take better care of the football, the Dragons could be a dangerous team as well.

-- That single-wing offense unveiled by Dragons offensive coordinator Ted Danecki is as effective as it is intricate. Emmanuel Griffin, Terrence Nash, Kelvin Lewis and the Dragons offense chewed up the Bulldogs’ defense for 291 rushing yards. And Kadena actually ran more plays than Foster, 59-44.

-- It was just … gad, those TURNOVERS! And not so much the turnovers, but when they occurred. Two turnovers led to 16 Foster points. A shanked punt led to another and a blown kick coverage permitted Foster to start another possession at Kadena’s 32, and four plays later the Bulldogs scored again.

-- Ironically, Foster committed more turnovers – five – than did Kadena. Again, it was when the miscues occurred and what they led to. None of Foster’s turnovers led to Kadena points.

-- And that stretch in the second quarter, a combined six giveaways in three minutes by both sides … ugly, ugly, ugly.

-- Zama American graduates of 2002 might remember Kelvin Lewis; he quarterbacked the Trojans that fall, and is now stationed at Kadena and in Dragons uniform. This guy absolutely torched the Foster secondary on his 68-yard quarterback-keeper TD run. Ain’t no telling what he can do once he’s in game shape.

-- As things are now, just a third of the way into the season, Foster has asserted control over the South Division at 2-0, as have the Misawa Jets in the “black-and-blue” North Division.

-- Waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy up north, at Misawa Air Base’s Hillside Stadium, where hot weather was hardly a bother, turnovers were just as much a headache during the host Jets’ 34-12 win over Yokosuka.

-- The visiting Seahawks coughed up the ball seven times, giving them 14 giveaways in their first two games of the season.

-- Misawa didn’t do much better, putting the pumpkin on the ground four times in the fourth quarter alone. The Seahawks simply didn’t capitalize.

-- Somebody who’s clearly become a dangerous weapon for the Jets is Rick Gennie, who is getting it done on all sides of the ball, offense, defense and special teams.

-- He caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from Douglas Brown. He also took a punt return 72 yards for a score. Then on defense, he intercepted two passes.

-- That Seahawks team may have lost their first two games by a combined 75-18, but they’re still drawing big compliments from their opponents. “Hats off to Yokosuka for playing as hard as they could for as long as they did,” Jets coach Ben Mathe said.

-- The Seahawks are simply a matter of taking better care of the football away from being a truly dangerous team. They have a talented arm in Arkee Jones and some sure-handed receivers; they just need to cut down on the miscues.

-- Again, it’s that matter of ensuring everybody has enough practice, especially on offense, in a military life that is truly a balancing act, balancing the mission, football and family in a high ops-tempo environment.

-- I’m predicting here and now that Corey Moore will be back in Foster uniform before long. Very much like Mike Favors, the Seahawks linebacker who made a habit of “coming out of retirement” every season, Moore loves the game too much to put it down.

259 days.

• Read More
• Comments

Catching up with: Ex-DODDS-Pacific athletes making it big in music

In another time, sisters Caroline and Olivia Lufkin (Kubasaki) and Crystal Williams (Nile C. Kinnick) might have been seen sporting shin guards and cleats, in the Lufkins' case, and basketball shoes in Williams' case as they toiled for their schools' respective soccer and basketball teams.

Followers of Dragons soccer and Red Devils hoops might not remember them immediately, for how their lives have transformed over the past 10 to 15 years.

The Lufkins played alongside the likes of strikers Morgan Bye, Jessica Hammond and Sherry Simmons and defenders Lindsay and Kristen Pellaton and Rachel Katz in the mid- to late-1990s. They helped put Kubasaki soccer on the map, beating American School 1-0 in the Kanto Invitational Tournament in May 1997. That set the stage for Kubasaki's second-place finish in the inaugural Far East tournament in 1998 and third place in 2000 and built the foundation for the Dragons' Far East tournament title teams of 2002 and '03.

Now look. Caroline Lufkin in January released her latest album Verdugo Hills and is playing a busy schedule of shows and tour dates. As for Olivia Lufkin, France was her most recent performing destination, last Monday.

Williams might have been forgiven had she missed a basketball game or practice or two or three during her years at Yokosuka Naval Base. She played alongside the likes of Arianne Bordeaux and Lualhati Johnson, guards who paced the Red Devils to the 2001 Far East Class AA Tournament title and reached the 2005 championship game at Seoul American.

But over the years, Williams, who goes by the stage name Crystal Kay, has proven pretty fair at cranking out hit songs and albums, 11 albums in all during her 10 years in the industry, including her most recent release Spin the Music last December.

I'm not too much into the Japan music scene, other than when the name of a former DODDS-Pacific type makes their way into it. But all I can call this is big ... very, very big.

• Read More
• Comments

Athletes of the Quarter: Chung, Hauter share honors

Josh Chung’s mission: Offense. Make plays, get as many teammates involved as he could so they could pile up as many goals as they could. Alina Hauter’s mission: Defense. Do whatever it takes to keep the ball out of her team’s net.

Consider both their missions accomplished.

Their soccer teams, Seoul American’s boys and Osan American’s girls, have the championship hardware and banners to attest to it, the Falcons winning the first Far East Division I Tournament title and the Cougars girls their Pacific-record seventh, including the last three in a row.

For their efforts and their teams’ successes, Chung, a junior midfielder, and Hauter, a senior sweeper, share Stars and Stripes Pacific high school spring sports season Athlete of the Quarter honors.

Seoul went a pedestrian 5-5-4, good for sixth place in the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference Division I regular season, and not many gave the Falcons a chance at winning the Far East Boys D-I title.

But don’t tell that to coach Steve Boyd. He felt his Falcons were just getting warmed up as freezing March turned to balmy May, and the Falcons took to the fields at Kubasaki High School for the most improbable title run in team history.

Culminating an 8-2-1 postseason run was the Falcons’ 1-0 double-overtime triumph over host Kubasaki in the Far East D-I Tournament championship.

At the center of that effort was Chung, who scored 12 goals and had four assists but did things offensively that don’t show up on a stat sheet.

“He was the engine,” Boyd said. “He was the only one on our team who could play all 11 positions. He’s that skilled. Josh was one of the best players in KAIAC and Far East.”

Scoring specialists Peter Kim and David Voelker (combined 24 goals) benefitted from Chung’s playmaking, and goalkeepers Kenneth Butts and Mitchell Lee ensured those goals would stand up.

Hauter’s value also didn’t translate much to stat sheets; she had just one goal and six assists in her four years in Cougar teal and black. But her play at sweeper, sandwiched between stopper Lydia Kim and goalkeeper Deanne Polaski, was invaluable in coach Sung Plourde’s eyes.

“She was the person on defense who everybody needed to get through,” Plourde said. “She and the defense held everybody in check. Lydia had to keep her eye on the other teams’ name players, anybody who was a threat. If anybody got by her, it was Alina’s responsibility to cover.”

It had to be rock solid, given injuries that sidelined scoring specialist Stephanie McDole and midfielders Lais Lima and Courtney Ouellette much of the season.

In the end, the Cougars - for the second time in three years - beat Matthew C. Perry in a two-match double-elimination final, the second going to a penalty-kick shootout.

As she was in the 2009 D-I Tournament final for Zama American against Kubasaki, Polaski proved up to the task, and the Cougars, after an 8-6-3 regular season, capped an 8-1-2 postseason with yet another championship.

The rest of the 2011 spring sports quarter awards:

  COACHES OF THE QUARTER – Take a bow, Coaches Steve Boyd and Julian Harden of Seoul American, who six days apart became the first two coaches in Pacific history to win Far East tournament titles in three sports in three seasons. Boyd has also won two Far East cross-country and three Far East D-I Basketball Tournament titles, in addition to his boys soccer banner. Harden, the departing Falcons coach who won the school’s first Far East Softball Tournament title, also has two D-I football and three D-I Wrestling tournament banners.

  TEAM OF THE QUARTER – Seoul Foreign girls soccer, which went 20-2-1 this season, won the KAIAC regular-season title for the fifth time and the Asia-Pacific Activities Conference Tournament title for the third time on coach Joon Myong’s watch.

  PROGRAM OF THE QUARTER –  A tie between American School In Japan, with its Far East Baseball and Girls D-I Soccer titles, and a sweep of the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools track and field regular-season and championship meet titles; and Seoul American, champions of Far East Boys D-I Soccer and Girls Softball Tournaments, third in Girls D-I Soccer and second by just one point in the Far East Track and Field Meet girls team standings.

  MOST IMPROVED TEAM – Seoul American boys soccer.

  MOST IMPROVED PROGRAM – DODDS Korea softball, which captured the gold medal (Seoul American) and bronze medal (Osan American) in the Far East Tournament after going fifth and eighth a year ago.

  BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE QUARTER – Much of the attention accorded the Far East champion American School In Japan Mustangs had to do with third baseman-pitcher Bessie Noll, a sophomore who was termed the “real deal” by opposing coaches and was featured in CNNgo.com. Quietly behind those scenes, junior Nathan Lorentz served as the team’s lynchpin, going 4-1 with an 0.53 ERA and batting .621 with four homers, 36 RBIs and 37 runs scored for the 15-4-1 Mustangs.

  TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES OF THE QUARTER – Kadena senior high-jumper Lotty Smith set a Pacific standard by become the first in the region to leap 2 meters, clearing 2.0066, or 6 feet, 6.74 inches, on May 25 in the Far East meet. Kubasaki junior sprinter A.J. Watson transferred to South Carolina before that meet, but before he left, he set a Pacific record in the 100, clocking a 10.54, and tying the Pacific mark of 21.4 in the 200.

  SOFTBALL PLAYER OF THE QUARTER – Behind Seoul American’s improbable Far East Tournament title run was senior right-hander Katie Darby, who went 4-0 on the season, batted .400 with six homers and 25 RBIs, and fought through a shoulder injury to be on the mound for the Falcons’ title-clinching 14-10 eight-inning triumph over host and defending champion Kadena.

  GAME OF THE QUARTER – Guam High and defending champion Kadena played the longest scoreless start in tournament history May 25 in the Far East Softball semifinal, with neither team walking a batter or committing an error until the eighth inning. The game’s lone miscue led to Kadena’s Tanisha Hodges’ walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the eighth, lifting the Panthers to their second straight Far East final.

  PLAY OF THE QUARTER – In the Boys D-I soccer semifinals at Kubasaki, Seoul American led pre-tournament favorite Christian Academy Japan 3-2 in the closing seconds when Falcons goalkeeper Kenneth Butts was cautioned for a reckless foul and a penalty kick awarded to the Knights. Forced to leave the field, he gave his jersey over to Mitchell Lee, an All-Far East goalkeeper in 2009 who played upfield this season. Facing sure-shooting Ryo Fuseya, Lee leaped high to deflect Fuseya’s kick over the crossbar.
 

• Read More
• Comments

Catching up with: Meagan Speck, ex-Guam High soccer star

I'd long thought that losing Meagan Speck would be one of those "How can you replace the irreplaceable?" moments for Guam High girls soccer. She scored 29 goals in her two seasons with the Panthers, helping lead them -- along with All-Island midfielder Lexi Vermiere and goalkeeper Melanie Strudthoff -- to the second Independent Interscholastic Athletic Association of Guam All-Island championship in school history. Speck left Guam immediately after the Panthers won that title, and continued her stellar ways for Terry Sanford (N.C.), earning Cape Fear region Player of the Year honors. She paced the Bulldogs to the Mid-South Conference regular-season title with 45 points this season.

• Read More
• Comments

In reply to comment regarding Far East track long-jump ruling

This is a reply to the comment published on June 2, 2011 in the Stars and Stripes, in response to this article:

• Read More
• Comments

Things learned, observed in USFJ-AFL Week 2.0

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer digests his first taste of interservice football Southern style:

-- Let me preface this by saying there should be no misunderstanding what the priorities are for our gallant servicemen who devote many of their off-hours donning shoulder pads and helmets. They’re hired to defend the country first. And a great job they do as members of the finest fighting force in the world. Many of them also devote time to wives and children as well.

• Read More
• Comments

Thank you to student-reporting teams at Far East!

Stripes publishes mountains of data, both online and in print, during Far East high school sports tournament weeks, including all four soccer tournaments May 16-20 and baseball, softball and track and field May 23-26.

Every last game, every last match, every last track result, inning-by-inning, half-by-half, event-by-event, penalty-kick-shootout-after-penalty-kick-shootout, was published by Stripes, many of the scores in almost-real time, something with which we experimented last month rather successfully.

• Read More
• Comments