Lift the 16-team entry cap for Far East individual sports tournaments
Published: October 24, 2012
No question, DODDS Pacific enriched their Far East high school tournaments in wrestling, tennis and cross country when two years ago, they re-opened the door to international-school participation after keeping it closed since 2004.
One provision DODDS put in place was, each of the tournaments would be limited to 16 schools/teams, to keep each tournament manageable and not have to wrestle too much with billeting, athletic facilities and base-clearance issues.
Isn’t it time, though, that the limit was increased, perhaps by one or two per year, to permit more and more deserving athletes the chance to perform on a state championship-equivalent stage, showcase their skills and perhaps even earn an athletic scholarship to a stateside university?
Because of the 16-team cap, a handful of schools out there who otherwise have great tennis programs, and even those that are just starting up but have a couple of athletes worth a look, have no chance of breaking into the field.
Take Seoul Foreign in Korea, for example. Their No. 1 singles seeds, juniors Jeffrey and Jae-hyun Kim, have run the table the last three regular seasons and have won gold medals in the Asia-Pacific Activities Conference and Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference tournaments, but can’t attend Far East, since the field is full.
Then, there’s Okinawa Christian School International, which is just starting up, but has two singles players who give Kadena’s and Kubasaki’s No. 1 seeds fits every time they play them: Juniors Ken Tokeshi and Catherine Funakoshi.
Since the Far East tennis tournament is held at Kadena Air Base on Nov. 5-8, base clearance and billeting should be no issue whatsoever. OCSI is granted base access to play Kadena and Kubasaki in Okinawa Activities Council matches. They can commute from home to the tournament; no billeting needed.
The question being, of course, adding those players to an already-full field and how it will impact the tournament time-wise; anybody remember how late the tournament finals went last year? So you limit the number of consolation-bracket participants, even prioritize the championship bracket over consolation. If some of the latter matches don’t get done, they don’t get done.
Same goes for the Far East cross country meets. They should lift that cap as well, and permit some of the Far East’s other programs to join the party.
Or perhaps the other way around – maybe more DODDS schools should consider joining what many consider the true Pacificwide season-ending cross-country meet, the Asia-Pacific Invitational on Guam. While DODDS fields 16 schools at its Far East meet, the API this year attracted 28 schools with 350-plus athletes. There are no limits where the API is concerned.
Wrestling is perhaps the most manageable of the three individual-discipline Far East tournaments for the moment. St. Mary’s International, Chrsitian Academy Japan and American School In Japan along with Guam’s Father Duenas Memorial and Simon Sanchez have filled out the field at 16, and no others appear willing to make that journey. Programs that no longer have wrestling teams such as Faith Academy, Morrison Academy and Brent International-Subic don’t appear to be ready to start back up again any time soon.
But let’s start by elevating the cap from 16 schools to 18. See how it goes. If it’s manageable, then try adding a 19th, then a 20th and see where it leads. It can’t hurt to at least try. The Tokeshis and Funakoshis and Kims of the world would be the happier for it.
