Pacific Sports Blog

Looks like the Eagles are going to be waiting awhile longer to hit the great outdoors to even hold a practice, much less play home games or matches in spring sports at Misawa Air Base in northeastern Japan>

Two feet of snow fell on Wednesday, and already at least one Robert D.

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If anybody's been wondering what those recent football practices on Kanto bases on Saturdays are for ... the answer will come at 2 p.m. March 21 at Kawasaki Stadium, when players representing the four football-playing Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools take on a team of Japanese from four Kanagawa Prefecture high schools.

"This has mushroomed into something really special," coach Tim Pujol of Yokota said. "It's exciting."

The 2010 Camellia Bowl, sponsored by Kawasaki City southwest of Tokyo, is a day-long affair, starting with an elementary-school flag game, followed by a junior-high touch game, then the main event, Team Kanagawa vs. Team Kanto.

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Training ongoing this week at AFN-Tokyo Eagle 810-AM radio this week at Yokota Air Base this week, so no weekly Thursday 4:30 p.m. call-in. His Awesomeness, Isaac Needleman, and Ornauer will re-hit the airwaves at 4:30 p.m. March 18; we'll be saluting the high school winter sports season Athletes of the Quarter, recapping the Yokota Warriors' drive to the Guam March Madness Pacific Regional Basketball Tournament final, previewing the March 21 All-Star high school football game at Kawasaki and discussing the spring sports season up to that point.

* Harry Bloom, Kadena: Far East tournament Outstanding Wrestler, three-peat gold medalist * Antoine "Flash" Feagin, Daegu American: Earned MVP honors, lifted Warriors to Class A hoops final * Taiyo Robertson, Kadena: Named MVP, powered Kadena to Class AA hoops title * Elijah Gamble, Nile C. Kinnick: Boosted Red Devils to first Far East wrestling individual freestyle title since 2001 * Stephen Hovater, Morrison Christian Academy: Former two-time MVP helped Mustangs repeat Class A hoops crown * Toni Taniguchi, St. Mary's International: Heart and soul of team playing hard in memory of Coach Fred Sava * Miles Peterson, Christian Academy Japan. Paced Knights to their finest season in decades * Other. Somebody get left out? Shout it out! Name and school, please. Thanks. :)

* Liz Gleaves, Seoul American: Fueled Falcons' flight to Class AA hoops title, earned MVP honors * Amber Gadsden, Guam High: Paced Panthers girls to best IIAAG team tennis finish, went unbeaten in singles * Hannah Arbour, International School of the Sacred Heart: Clearly top of Class A hoops field for runner-up Symbas * Anissa Fitz, Kadena: Central figure in Panthers' rise as unlikely Class AA hoops Final Four team * Grace Fern, Faith Academy: Super soph helped boost Vanguards to yet another Class AA hoops final * Alexzandria Averette, Daegu American: Final touch needed to put Warriors over top of Class A hoops field * Other. Somebody get left out? Shout it out! Name and school, please. Thanks. :)

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer thanks his stars for long-lasting camera batteries, one-game double-elimination basketball tournament finals and to be in one place for at least 11 days:

-- No doubt, longtime Osan Defenders coach Tony Jones will firmly shake the hand of Yokota Warriors and All-Air Force coach Norzell Harris next time he sees him ... for not entering the Warriors in last week's March Madness Pacific Regional Basketball Tournament. That freed up former two-time Defender Anthony Showers to play for Osan and Jones, as was the case with Frederick Guild.

-- Showers made a world of difference in Sunday's 81-59 comeback title victory over Joint Region Marianas A.

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March 4th

February 25th

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as the 2010 March Madness Regional Pacific Basketball Tournament heads down the home stretch:

-- Got a handful of folks pulling some serious double duty in this tournament. It's being held a couple of weeks earlier than usual, so it coincides with the home stretch of Guam's high school boys basketball season, and a few folks are coaching in each.

-- Headlining the pack is Joe Taitano, who's coached since the 1970s John F. Kennedy and George Washington High Schools boys teams, and is now helming the Guam High Panthers as they seek a school-first Independent Interscholastic Athletic Association of Guam regular-season and postseason tournament title.

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Musings, mutterings and the frequent observation as Ornauer gets more than just a quick gaze at Guam in his first visit to "Where America's Day Begins" in five years:

-- What a refreshing change, after five weeks of dodging snowflakes in Misawa, Tokyo, Seoul and especially Camp Humphreys, to step off the Boeing 737-800 into 87-degree weather, humidity and sunshine.

-- You mean, the Hertz Rent-a-Car attendant actually went and GOT the car and drove it up curbside for me to pick up? Yep, you read right. This is an island that luuuuuurrrrrves entertaining visitors and treating them as if they're all the DV-est of DVs.

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* Yes. They're Far East cross-country champions; they shouldn't be denied just because Seoul American doesn't sponsor track. * No. DODEA Pacific's rules are just that; only DODEA schools that sponsor track may participate, and it must be abided by.

Somehow, the long-distance event field will seem somewhat empty during the first Far East Track and Field Meet on May 24-25 at Okinawa's Kubasaki High School.

Senior Thomas Kim and freshman Siarria Ingram, each of Seoul American High School and winner of the Far East Cross-Country Meet individual gold medal, won't be competing in Far East track.

Why?

Rules governing the new Far East baseball, softball and track meets this spring specifically state that only DODEA Pacific schools and their students may compete, and only those schools that sponsor teams in those sports may compete.

Kim and Ingram fit the former category, but not the latter -- Seoul American runs a cross-country program, but not track and field.

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They've come from places like Virginia Beach or Kadena Air Base the last three or four years, reluctant at first to come to Zama American and its girls soccer team, but finding that winning -- as the Trojans have been doing the last four years -- tends to be the elixir for whatever ails them about leaving "all that" behind. Click here to read the story of the latest such transfer, junior striker Taylor Cave.

Now it can be told:

-- Far East baseball and softball May 17-20, baseball to be hosted by Zama American at Camp Zama's Rambler Field and Naval Air Facility Atsugi's Bandy Field, softball to be hosted by Kadena at Kadena Air Base's FourDiamonds Complex.

-- Far East track and field May 24-25, Monday and Tuesday, to be hosted at Kubasaki High School's Mike Petty Stadium.

According to a DODEA Pacific news release, the tournaments will be open to DODEA schools only "for this year," Far East Athletic Council chair Don Hobbs said.

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Speaking of former Pacific stars, check out what Zori Drew, a former Kadena Panthers three-sport star named Stars and Stripes Athlete of the Year for her senior year, 2006-07, is doing for Division II Brigham Young-Hawaii, part of the Pacific West Conference.

This courtesy of Jason Sheedy on Guam, former three-year varsity Zama American volleyball player Emily Carpenter is now on the roster at Canisius, an NCAA Division I Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference school in Buffalo, N.Y.

With the Japan Junior Olympic age-group championships in their home pool just two weeks away, the International Buccaneers boys relay team has sounded the first warning shot.

Christian Brown, Bruno Ortiz, Ryutaro Kamiya and Kelly Moodie set a Japan national high school record in the 200 freestyle relay, posting a time of 1 minute, 32.43 seconds at the international swim complex at Tatsumi, on Tokyo's east side. Some 148 clubs and 2,754 swimmers attended the event.

That same foursome also broke the Tokyo record in the 200 medley relay by 4.1 seconds.

The Buccaneers, a perennial power in the Japan JO's, will host among other teams the combined Kanto Plain military youth team as well as the Okinawa Dolphins Swim Team on March 13-14 at the St.

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... as we close the book on the 2009-2010 basketball season and turn our attention to spring sports ...

Boys
1, Kadena, Okinawa. May be the best team coach Robert Bliss has ever had.
2, Morrison Christian Academy, Taiwan. May be the best team coach Dan Robinson has ever had.
3, St. Mary's International, Japan. What an inspired run to honor late coach Fred Sava; just fell three points short.
4, Daegu American, South Korea. Warriors came up just short in first finals appearance in 11 years.
5, Simon Sanchez, Guam. Two final four berths in two years.
6, Robert D. Edgren, Japan.
7, Okkodo, Guam.

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In-studio visit on Feb. 18 with the one and only D.J. Awesome.

By Friday at the earliest, by early next week at the latest, we should know precisely where and when the new season-ending Far East baseball, softball and track and field events will take place. DODEA Pacific officials say they want to ensure fields, billeting and event directors are all in place. "We're getting close," DODEA Pacific's Far East Athletics Coordinator Don Hobbs told me in an e-mail Wednesday evening.

-- So, just what constitutes a tournament Most Valuable Player? Outstanding statistics? Where a team finishes in the standings? Or simply that player's value to his or her team?

-- That question invariably comes up after any Far East Tournament in any sport comes to an end. Just as with All-Tournament selections, there is no truly scientific method for selecting an MVP.

-- Major League Baseball is frought with examples of just that.

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