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Pacific SportsBlogOkinawa-based sports reporter Dave Ornauer on military-related sports in the Far East. |
Best Soccer Elevens of the Last 10 Years
Posted March 20th, 2008 by Dave OrnauerShirt-tailing on the smashing success of the Basketball Best Fives of the Last 25 Years on this space, 'tis time we attempt the same thing with the spring sport of soccer.
Bear in mind that Far East tournaments in soccer have only been in existence since 1998, and the inception of Class A tournaments didn't occur until 2002.
So, we shall limit this to the Best Soccer Elevens of the Last 10 Years.
Let's hear it! Who are the best to ever suit up on the pitch for your school?
Center-forward
Left wing
Right wing
Center-midfielder
Right-midfielder
Left-midfielder
Stopper
Left fullback
Right fullback
Sweeper
Goalkeeper
Sound off. Be loud and proud. Be true to your school. And remember, you've entered THE "No-Hate Zone." *smile*
Wow
You know I can't remember all the names. One kid stands out to me...
Goalkeeper-Ted Awana (Kadena)
How about if you put some names out there for us. We are old and don't have the "Ornauer, what happened in the 78th minute of the 2002 Far East" memory.
Help us out a little here Dave!!! Do you want both girls and boys?
Tonight I saw two of the best goals I have seen in High School soccer...
Yokota vs Edgrin
A diving header from about 12 yards out to far post and a full volley from about 25 yards out off of the left middies foot. Totally awesome and I got them both on video!!!
A header from that far out
A header from that far out is rarely seen in high school soccer but a DIVING one? Haha, that is amazing. You need to put that video on the web, I would love to see that.
Kadena 2006..
I would have to say the best starting 11 and probably the best team to ever suit up for a Far East soccer event would have to be the Kadena Panthers in 2006. That season the panthers went on to win every game and sweep the Tournament beating Kubasaki 3-0 in the Championship game. 5 Players have or will be moving on to play at the collegiate level.
Nathan LaGrave - Bucknell - Division I
Aaron Zendejas - Northern Illinois - Division I
Ted Awana - Louisberg - Junior College (but one of the top 5 Junior Colleges in the States)
Alex Mierzejewski - BYU-Hawaii - Division II
Kingsley Mcleod - St. Francis - Division I
The Kadena Panthers had a strong Defense, which at Far East won the Best Defense award. Best Goalie award was given to Ted Awana as well.
You could go down the starters list and see Great athletes and probably one of the best teams ever to be assembled in the Far East. Im proud to say that i won 2 championships with Kadena and im also proud to say that i was on this starting 11.
Just One More Thing.
I would just like add one more thing. I would like to give credit for Kadena's success in the past to the Coaches. Mike Callahan and John Reay were the base of our success. They taught us, as players, not only the fundamentals of the sport but how to prepare ourselves to become men in this world. Their Coaching habits were not from the United States but from Japan and from England. Callahan played and coached in Japan and had a coaching style of a Japanese team, Conditioning was a HUGE factor for us and our style of play was tough and fast. Reay was from Middlesbrough England and taught us how to play the English game. Physical and Fast paced with a lot of shots on goal. Both of these coaches brought so much to the table in our development as a team. Tactics also played a huge part in our game. Throughout the entire team everyone had a job and they were to do that job to the best of their capabilities. Those tactics really prepared me for the College game! I know that our team wouldn't have done half as well if we didn't have these Coaches. I also know that none of these players, that i have mentioned in the comment above, would have gotten to where they were today if it wasn't for these two men.
They were the best coaches i have ever had and i wish that my college coach could have been half as good as these two men. I am proud to call them my coaches and i wish them the best in all of their doings. I would also like to express my Thanks to these two men as well. Thank You Coach Callahan and Coach Reay for all the hard work that you put into our team and into my development as a player. Thanks again Coaches.
Alex Mierzejewski
Osan's Best Eleven
Let's hear it for the Far East Champions of 2004
Best eleven overall. That's hard to pick, here are some names to throw up
Justin Park - GK, Michael Elkins - Mid, Van Hauter - Mid, Carlos Albaladejo - Mid, Jay Carver - Def., Alex Lane - Mid, Kevin Carver - Def.
That's a hard category to pick from haha.
But I would have to say the best 11 overall playing on a team at one point are either the teams of 2004, 2005, 2006, or 2007.
Sure their records on the pitch might not have been the best, but at Far East tourneys in those years, they rose above a lot of opponents that where considered the best teams for those schools.
Such as 2004 - beat all schools
2005 - beat Edgren (who many say had the best team that Edgren had ever seen)
But always welcome to other suggestions.
Osan Goalies
It's actually a toss up. My bad.
Between Justin Park and John Paul Conde. They both were tremendous goalies
standings
Dave
can you post actual standings of the teams vice just the scores? Or is there some link somplace to find this out for all Classes and Division levels (Pacific) for HS soccer?
Taegu Lady Warriors
As a complete starting team, Taegu's best would obviously be the 2006-07 Class A Far East Champions. Starting 0-4 in the season then finished off on fire 13-7-1, with 6-0 in the FE tournament and a great come from behind win for the championship (and At the end of the season gave all the large schools a serious run losing only by one point to strong SFS, SAHS, and TCIS): Kat Nufable, Sarah Eades, Aimee Hildenbrand, Nicki and Morgan Calisto, Vanessa Fernandez, Kay Husler, Linda Martinez, Sunny Yeoh, Agnes Choi, Alex Vynorious and Shawn Simpson/Ashley Little (G) as starters. However if I were to have a "dream team" for the Warriors' best since 2002 as a 4-3-3 it would be: Aimee, Sarah, Kat (Forwards), Joanne Youngblood, Kay, and Katrina Alsup (Mids), Linda, Agnes, Sunny and Nina Forrest (D), with Shawn as goalie. Every year the new crop surprises everyone so this years batch sure does have the potential to do so.
Best Soccer Elevens?
Here are some folks noteworthy of inclusion:
FW- Nathan LaGrave (Kadena)
FW- Clyde Soumas (Yokota)
FW- Leo Kobayashi (CAJ)
MD- Aaron Zendejas (Kadena)
MD- Chris Munroy (Kubasaki)
MD- Jared Huber (Kubasaki)
MD- Stefan Welch (Yokota)
MD- Chris Eastman (Kadena)
DF- Mitch Berger (Kubasaki)
DF- Alex Mierzejewski (Kadena)
GK- Ted Awana (Kadena)
Newcomer to watch: Stanley Schrock (Kadena)
Why just 10 years
hey Ornauer I understand that the far east soccer tournament is 10 years old but what about some of the great teams of the 20 plus years. I remember a team in Seoul Korea that went four years without loosing a single game and had a record of 65-0. I would say that is a pretty big accomplishment. I agree that these kids are great players and in my opinion Alex Mierzejewski was the best defensive palyer that has played in the far east in along time. I also think that there were also some great players before the last ten years as well. Nate Robinson, Cecil McNair, Tyler Hamilton, Paul Hagar, Jason Williams, these are just a few that i remember.
Re: Why just 10 years
Far East tournament era.is primarily why. Not only do I remember some of the names you mentioned, let's also look at teams such as Okinawa United, cobbled together in the mid-1990s by former Kadena assistant principal James Feller. They traveled to mainland and took the Kanto Plain by storm.
Back then, the sport was no less competitive than it is now. In my eyes, it didn't have the following of the casual fan, as you see today. There's something to play for beside league bragging rights -- a Far East tournament. That, to me, has ramped up interest in more ways than we can possibly imagine.
why just 10 years
I can see a solid argument for both extending beyond Far East Tourney era and as well as limiting it to just the Far East era of the circa 2000's .... there were plenty of great players before the beginning of DoDD's hosted Far East Soccer Tournaments and it will be a shame for them not to get some recognition... as well as players from schools who due to seasonal issues do not regularly attend Far Easts ( school's such as St. Mary's, ASIJ-of recent I believe, Taiwan, Philippines, and south-- who play in the winter, etc).
That being said I agree with Orny's assessment that the Far East tourney has ramped up interest in a ton of ways, one way being the difference between players in the 90's and early 2000's who were just as talented , if not more so, as those today but did not go onto play in college versus the growing number of kids we see in the past couple years go onto play collegiate soccer.
It's just impossible to list every good player who ever played the game so staying with the Far East era makes sense as it creates a moderately equal measuring stick for the case of inclusion of a player or not.
Last 10 years
Actually, that's seems pretty logical. Besides the "following" factor, there's just been so much talent at Kubasaki and Kadena that you almost have to break down the best players by decade. So just for fun, I'd like to suggest my picks for the Kubasaki all-90's team. What do you think?
gk Terrence Raybon 95
df Sonny Jones 93
df John Feller 94
df Garrett Miles 96
df Michael Farmer 97
mf Tyler Hamilton 94
mf Ken Lawrence 95
mf Fred Emberger 96
mf Chris Cobb 97
fw Paul Eastman 95
fw Ken Johnson 97
coach Jerry Weeks
This is good!
I remember most of those names, but what made those kids great was Jerry Weeks. Coach, not only of the decade, but I would say, all time. He was one of the originals that put Okinawa soccer on the map. His contributions to the "Program", are second to none! Someone needs to find a picture of Sonny in High School and post it! I know he is still working at MCCS!!!
90's team
That is a great list for a 90's team and that club team was started by feller was a great program to get the kids from both schools together. But there are come names that u forgot
FW. Nate Robinson 93
FW. Paulr Hagar 93
Df. Cecil Mcnair 93
DF. Mike Mierzejewski 93
FW. Brian Peasley 94
These were great Kids and i know that Paul Hagar and Mike Mierzejewski were only at the school for 1 year but made a big difference in that Dragon team. Nate robinson and Cecil Mcnair were probally two of the fastest kids that i ever played with and Paul Hagar moved the ball around just as well as anyone. All of the kids listed were great kids from all of the comments. It is exciting for me to remember the good times playing with these great competitors and friends. and for all that played on that club team Go chiquitas.
Re: 90s team
Kawika and Keola Lacar of OCSI would fit nicely at sweeper and center-mid on an all-90s team.
Chiquitas...haha
Nice touch, dude. Yeah, I just threw out most of the guys from our 95 squad. That year we beat Seoul Foreign, Seoul American and swept Kadena. We opened our season with a tie against Guam champion Father Duenas right after their season ended. If we played them later in the year, they most likely would have gotten rolled, too. It was great a season to help Coach Weeks close out his 12 year stint.
I remember you from 93. Header goal in OT to beat Kadena, right?
Nice touch
Yea I did score the winning goal. i was actually the Stopper for that team. (who is this anyway). Coach weeks had a good Idea to play me at forward to throw kadena off of our defensive game and it worked. The play was actually the work of nate robinsion running to the ball while the kadena defenders were watching the ball, but that was typical nate doing his thing. It was to bad that we were unable to finish out with one more win that year. it was a great time and I have great memories of that season. It is actually weird that my brother and I happened to play the same position just many years apart. I also need to mention that Coach spain was also a very good coach that helped me learn alot about the game. Thanks to all that remembered the great Kubasaki Kadena soccer games and all the great times. I will also remember what cecil, me (mike) tyler and sonny called the kitchen it was a nickname given to us by our club coach. Does anyone remember what our club coachs name was i remember feller and weeks but there was a marine who had played pro for a while who coached us.
Mike M.
It's Ken. I remembered your goal because it happened right in front of me.
Jared Huber no doubt, scored
Jared Huber no doubt, scored the winning goal (PK) in the 2002 far east championship at Kubasaki. As a freshman, I scored the tieing goal in that game also. I am finishing up my career playing soccer at Mt.Olive College, NC D2. Played at Kubasaki for 02 and 03..also led the Samurai to the rising sun bowl as the starting quarterback my sophomore year...
Memories...
I refed that game!
Ken
Thats right man those were some fun times. I have to be honest that had to be the best goal i have ever scored. Where are you living now ken. I went back to okinawa to see my brother alex play in the far east tournament about three years ago it brought back alot of great memories.
Oki fan
FW
Nathan Lagrave Kadena
Brendon Stanford Kadena
MF
Aron Zendejas
Forgot his name.Japanese #10 from CAJ in '04(maybe 05 too) far east. Can anyone name him?
Allen Chin Seoul American
DF
George Murray Kinnick
Devon Copeland Kadena
GK
Ted Awana
This is all I remember..A lil note about each players
Nathan Lagrave
Strong, skillful, tall and accurate. He played the kill role in 2004.
He can shoot both feet and had a great touch.
Brendon Stanford
Fast and created a lot of chances for Kadena. Made a lot of shooting oppurtunity
for himself.
Aaron Zendejas
He has skills and stamina. He knew how to play "soccer". He played
dirty when he had to (in a good way). For example pulling shirts when
the reffs not looking.
Japanese CAJ #10 2004 and 2005?
No one named him yet. He had skills with great vision. No1 play maker
I know. This guy knew how to play dirty as well. He goes down with a
little contact to earn FKs and made chances. Him vs Zendejas was fun
to watch.
Allen Chin
He had good skills, but often hogged the ball too much. Helped
Seoul America to 4th place in 2004. Also mentioned as an ALL-star
player.
George Murray
Short, but VERY fast. He helped Kinnick big time in 2004 with
his mate Kenneth. Murray could score while he plays at the back.
Devon Copeland
He was a rock. Tall and strong. Was hard for the attackers from other
team to go against him.
Ted Awana
His kicks, dives, throws...No other keepers that I know from
Far east tournament is near him. He was an ideal goal keeper
for any teams
Zendejas, Laggrave, CAJ #10 was fun to watch.
Those three does crazy moves during the game.
Watoto
#10 CAJ
I don't remember his number, but from the description I'm pretty sure it's Chihiro Ikeda.
Re: # 10 CAJ
Of course, after the 2009 season, that number will be more closely associated with one Kobayashi, Leo.
Re: # 10 CAJ
Mr. Ornauer,
Hi, this is Chihiro. I heard my name was mentioned in this blog so I visited. I still treasure the email I received from you after taking the Far East tittle in 2005. Brings me back the memories.I often visit CAJ to join their practice and Leo Kobayashi, that boy has skills and speed. He's still a junior,and I'm very impressed by him. It would've been great if he was in 2005 team.I heard Nathan is doing really good in bucknell. I respect him on and off the pitch. He was staying right next to our room in yokota base and he always cared for my injury ( I only played 3games in 2005 tournament since I had ACL problem before season). He is the real sportsman. I wish him the best.
Watoto,
Thank you for mentioning me.Did you play for Okinawa? I remember one player from Kadena (not mentioned in this thread yet)who played for Center Back in 2004, but moved to Germany? Can anyone mention his name? I think he wrestled too.
Re: # 10 CAJ
Chihiro-san:
Pretty sure you're talking about Brenden Stanford. He played in the memorable 2005 championship which the CAJ Knights won in overtime. And he won a gold medal at 101 pounds in the 2002 Far East wrestling tournament.
Stanford received a partial scholarship to a Division II school in New Hampshire, but tired of the New England lifestyle and is now living and playing ball in Hawaii.
Quality
Both Brenden and Nathan were quality people. Not just good players, but downright good people. Jason Stroup and Ricky Burns from Yokota and Jimmy (I don't know his last name) from Zama are players who are playing today which have similar qualities. Good people, good players.
A true sportsman
Redcard: That would be Jimmy Flatley.
Jimmy Flatley
Jimmy Flatley and his brother Brandon Flatley were one of the toughest kids I played against. Jimmy actually went to a DII school to play soccer.
Just thought I might add/critique
Just thought I might add to/critique some of the above evals...I knew most of the fellas personally.
Nathan LaGrave
Poised and Powerful. Has supreme vision--undoubtedly one of the best catalysts for real combination play to hail from the Far East. Tremendous touch. He's got all the right tools. P.S.--You don't wanna step in front of this guy's shot--trust me.
Brendon Stanford
Comes from a long line of lethal Kadena strikers. He'll dazzle you on the ball if he has to, but most of the time he's already long gone. If he gets on the end of any long ball, it's bad news for his opponents. You don't want to be in a foot race with Stanford.
Aaron Zendejas
Confident and relentless. Dirty is a strong word...i would go with "scrappy." Definately plays with heart and passion--not afraid to get a little dirt in his hair or blood on his jersey. Very honerable guy, both on and off the pitch. He has gamesmanship like a pro, and he is technically sound. Skillful and determined--hard to play against, but fun to watch.
Chris Monroy
Quick, crafty, and always composed. Very difficult to defend. His pace, movement off the ball, and quick thinking often puts opposing defenders in big trouble. When he's on, there's not much you can do. Good as a finisher as well as a playmaker. Also fun to watch.
Ted Awana
Spot on. Any team can play with confidence when they have this guy between the pipes. Does well to read the play--staying big and covering every inch of the net. Like a tiger...trusting in insticts, relying on reflexes; if you can beat this guy, pat yourself on the back.
-Just to name a few...shall I go on?
(This was in response to Watoto)
Yokota
Where is the Love for Yokota? We have had great players just like Kadena, Kubasaki, and CAJ. I beleive that Yokota is the unsung team in soccer. The worst finish they had at far east was seventh in 2004. 2002 and 2003 were both second place. 2005 and 2006 was fourth behind the mentioned teams above.2007 was a third place finish and this year hopefully they will get over the hump and bring home the gold. From these teams there have been great players.
Stefan Welch- One of the purist midfielders i have seen. He is so comfortable on the pitch as if he was born there. He was the centerpiece for Yokota from 04-07. He has a remarkable free kick and is so patient and smooth with the ball at his feet. He turned down a scholarship to place kick for the University of Hawaii to play D-3 soccer at Plymoth State in New Hampshire. Welch was a 3 year all far east and kanto selection
Akira "AJ" Host- Only played one year with the panthers but holds the school record for goals in a season. He was the point man for the Panthers during the 2004 season. He is so quick with the ball and once he is by you, you are not catching up.
Jamal McNeill- Most people around the pacific have heard of his younger brother, football and basketball star, Anthony McNeill. However there were two McNeills in the Pacific. McNeill played several posistions, sweeper, fullback, and striker. He small in stature but had speed, strength, and quickness. He played two seasons for Coach Pujol 04 and 05 and scored almost 30 goals his senior season, spending 2/3 of the season on defense. McNeill was selected to the All far east and kanto teams his senior year, to add to his recognition in football. Good thing for the Pacific that their isnt a third McNeill.
Bronson Bailey and Andreas Cabral- Cant have one with out the other, Bailey and Cabral ran the wings for Tim Pujol for 3 years together. The were a big key to the panthers sucess. With to different playings styles and practically opposites they allowed the panthers to attack in several different ways. Bailey is a lefty and Cabral is a righty. Bailey was patient and was great with possesion while Cabral was a long legged speedster who wanted to push the tempo of the game.
Scott Monahan Jon Saffold- Two lock down defenders with different approaches. They were the defensive version of Bailey and Cabral. Monahan used his speed and intensity to mangle attackers. His unorthadoxed style of play confused alot of attackers and was good for the panthers. On the other hand Saffold was a strong and sterdy defender who also ran the wings with Cabral and Baily. Saffold was more of the enforcer for the panthers. However he was exactly opposite off the field. He is one of the most kind hearted, intellegent people that i have ever met.
With players like these, and youngsters that are now turning into High School legends of there own, there is no wonder the Panthers worst placing in far east was 7th.