One is a junior, fleet of foot, a proud representative of a rising Zama American program. He's the reigning Far East High School Cross Country 3.1-mile individual race boys champion. He lost but one race in the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools track and field season, posting region bests in the two-mile and mile.

The other is leaving us after three stellar years in Kadena uniform. She exits having led the Panthers to their second straight Far East Class AA Basketball Tournament title and six straight Okinawa Activities Council girls softball crowns.

All hail Andrew Quallio and Monica Hayes, Stars and Stripes Athletes of the Year!

It's a matchup two years in the making. The Yokosuka Seahawks, seven-time U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League champions, are off to a 2-0 start this season and are set to host the two-time Okinawa Football League champion Kadena Dragons on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Yokosuka's Berkey-by-the-Bay.

It should be an interesting matchup of championship teams. Not for spots in the USFJ-AFL standings -- Kadena plays the three USFJ-AFL members as an exhibition entry -- but for bragging rights between the regions.

Kadena last visited the Kanto Plain in 2006, when the Dragons outscored Yokota and Atsugi by a combined 80-0.

Hail to your Stars and Stripes' male and female Athletes of the Quarter for the spring season.

Hail to Mike Fulwiler, senior shortstop and cleanup batter, who led Kubasaki's baseball team to a school-best 18-7 record, a second straight Okinawa Activities Council championship for the Dragons.

Hail to Shawn'qunisha Simpson, 14 shutouts in 23 matches, helped lead a defense-oriented Daegu American Warriors side to its second straight Far East Girls Class A Soccer Tournament title match.

One more order of business -- Stars and Stripes' athletes of the year, coming up next Sunday. :)

Saturday's U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League season resembled any other day at the office for the league's seven-time champion Yokosuka Seahawks.

They began the 2008 campaign in style, as new running back Carl Harris ran 19 times for 111 yards and five touchdowns and Derreck "Tractor" Traylor recorded a sack and recovered three fumbles, one for a touchdown, in a 48-6 romp over Yokota.

Consider this a sort of a guest book in reverse.

To all seniors in the region: Now that you're leaving, and we will miss you, how about letting SportsBlog Nation know where you're going to be next fall?

Your name, name of university or college and mascot.

And shout it out, loud and proud! :)

Examples:

HOOK 'EM HORNS! (Texas).
GO BIG RED! (Nebraska).
ROLL, TIDE! ROLL! (Alabama).

And good luck wherever you're headed and in all your endeavours. :)

Out of the hundreds of interesting, intense and at times unusual games and contests, one or another had to stand out in the minds of the many in SportsBlog Nation.

The last-second touchdown or basket to win the game. Coming from behind when the deficit seemed hopelessly large. Or the heroic star once again stepping up, looming large when the situation desperately called for it.

What are your top moments of the sports year? What will you always remember from your regular league or Far East tournament?

Turning the page onto the final month (or two weeks) of the school year, all across the region, they're planning the mass exodus as the minutes tick down to that last day of class (yes, I was a clock watcher in school. A French teacher once told me, "Time will pass. Will you?").

So, what are your plans for the summer?

Long vacation with folks back home?

Hop-skotching from one end of the States to the other?

Perhaps a summer football, basketball, soccer or baseball camp? Where? Which camp? And who's coaching it?

Keep active, using the training regimen given by your coach, to ensure you hit the first of two-a-days in shape?