By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 30, 2009
Musings and mutterings and the occasional bit of schmarts as Ornauer and the rest of the Pacific heads into the spring break home stretch:
-- Not just one, but TWO no-hitters tossed last weekend. Are you kidding me? Senior Eddy Davis of Nile C. Kinnick tossed a five-inning gem in an 18-1 rout at Yokota; Seoul American senior Jina Kim accorded Osan American the same treatment in an 8-0 triumph. Davis struck out nine batters; Kim fanned 10. Both victories on the road.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 29, 2009
The big Class A vs. Class AA showdown in the Kanto is done, some international schools are out on spring break, with DODDS-Pacific schools to follow next week. Not much change in the pecking order.
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go:
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 26, 2009
-- Never before had Matthew C. Perry's girls soccer team scored a victory over Nile C. Kinnick, until Thursday night, when the Samurai outlasted the Red Devils 3-1 at Berkey By The Bay.
Karla Stroud notched two goals, giving her 22 on the season, and Danielle Dobson another, her 20th of the campaign.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 24, 2009
A little late, three weeks into the season, but that's necessary, it says here, for teams, players and things to settle in their proper orbit and routines.
The ratings are not entirely based on win-loss records, but also strength of schedule, ability and value of returning players and newcomers, strength of opponents, quite a few things. You might note that a team or two might have no wins at all, and one that hasn't taken the field yet.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 22, 2009
Musings and mutterings as we count down to the track meet so big, it's known by one name: Petty:
-- When word spread like wildfire about Lotty Smith high-jumping 6 feet, 2 inches in just the second Okinawa Activities Council track and field meet of the season, most simply said, "Wow." With good reason. The kid's a sophomore and came within three inches of the Pacific record set three years ago by Marquis Newton. And he might be at Kadena until he graduates.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 22, 2009
That she led the Seoul American volleyball team in digs and was second in spike kills, that as point guard she helmed her basketball team to a 31-2 record and second-place Far East ClassAA Tournament finish, that she's amassed a 22-4-5 goalkeeping record in soccer in just her sophomore year is astonishing enough.
It's Liz Gleaves ability to leap on command that people remember most when seeing her play. Read her story in this week's Home Team page.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 22, 2009
Imagine the person you consider your best friend, with whom you share everything, even keep a toothbrush at each other's houses for sleepovers ... is the ace pitcher for your school's arch-rival?
That's the story of Mary Schweers of Kadena and Carrie Thompson-Davis of Kubasaki. Read their story in this week's Home Team page.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 17, 2009
We're continuing the first part of the process of constructing our own Pacific high school athlete "Mount Rushmores" of the past 25 years.
Early nominations are still open until March 31. We'll start whittling the fields down in early April, with the goal of assembling "Mount Rushmores" throughout the Pacific by the start of Advanced Placement exams in May.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 15, 2009
Musings and mutterings just hours before Selection Sunday breeds its usual No. 1-seed snubs, NCAA Tournament snubs and wall-to-wall collegehoops for three more weeks:
-- Sometimes, all it takes is getting into a playing rhythm for a boys soccer team to get its sea legs underneath 'em. Such was the case for Zama American and E.J. King this weekend. After going 0-2-1 March 6-7 at Matthew C. Perry, the Trojans ran off three straight wins, including 4-1 and 2-1 home triumphs over Robert D. Edgren. The Cobras, 0-1-1 against Nile C. Kinnick in Week 1, reeled off two victories over Matthew C. Perry by an 11-3 margin.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 15, 2009
That Ashley Hawkins, Robert D. Edgren's junior basketball guard, would grab female Stars and Stripes Pacific winter season Athlete of the Quarter honors was almost a ironclad, mortal hammer lock. Be it here in SportsBlog Nation or via e-mail, she garnered a record flood tide of nominations.
But the boys honouree? Quite another story, as Kubasaki's 122-pound senior Scott Wood barely nosed out Nile C. Kinnick senior 135-pounder Cameron Butts.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 10, 2009
Musings and mutterings as Ornauer has finally satisified his soccer jones, and we move into the heart of the schedule:
-- Seoul American's 2-2 tie Monday at home against Seoul Foreign is far more significant than just averting a loss to the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference's six-time regular-season and seven-time tournament champions. That ended a 42-match KAIAC winning streak and was the first non-victory for the Crusaders dating back to the 2006 season, a tie against Seoul International in the last regular-season match.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 10, 2009
Talk about no ordinary "Golf Guy" tall tale. Chris Howard, a Camp Foster civilian, while playing in a 2-man scramble tournament at Okinawa's Awase Meadows golf course, hit not just one, but two holes in onein the same round!
And talk about going against long odds. It's bad enough that the weather was horrible -- mid-50s, rainy and windy -- but a study commissioned by Golf Digest in 2000 reveals the odds of acing two holes in the same round are ... 1 in 67 million.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 7, 2009
Do Kubasaki's boys and girls soccer teams have what it takes to make a run for Far East Class AA Soccer Tournament gold, to add to their combined gold-medal haul of six?
Are Daegu American's and Matthew C. Perry's girls on a collision course for a rematch of their memorable 2007 Far East Class A Tournament final, won by Daegu 2-1 in overtime?
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 5, 2009
They weren't even supposed to be at Zama American this year. Sister scoring tandem Aubrey and Mallarie Ashliman were headed back to Virginia from whence they came, and Taylor Russell appeared California bound after leading Kadena to two Far East Class AA Tournament bronze medals.
Yet there they are, poised to help the Trojans girls strikers defend their DODDS-Japan and Kanto Plain titles and perhaps make a deep run at a school-first Class AA crown. Read their story in this week's Home Team page.
By Dave Ornauer
Published: March 3, 2009
With apologies to ESPN's just concluded Mount Rushmore series, it's time for SportsBlog Nation to try something very similar:
We're going to spend this spring selecting the best four athletes at each Pacific high school going back to 1983.
