There appears to be a bit of confusion over what I'm looking for, for the Pacific high school "best fives" of the past 25 years.
Best five from each school, boys and girls. Not the best five of the entire Pacific for the last 25 years, although after we get finished posting all the schools' best fives, we may attempt to do that.
Here are some examples of what I'm after:
Yokota High School, boys
Duane Paul, center, Class of 1982.
Craig Barnum, shooting guard, Class of 1983
Sam Bennett, small forward, Class of 1986
Gary Birdwell, power forward, Class of 1988
Cameron Cooper, point guard, Class of 2006
Yokota High School, girls
Christina Maniscalco, shooting guard, Class of 1989
Kenya Newman, small forward, Class of 1993
Sarah Young, power forward, Class of 1994
Fayth McCallum, point guard, Class of 1995
Andrevia Thomas, center, Class of 2006
How'z about all the other schools? Let's hear it!
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Kadena High Marcus Brown
Kadena High
Marcus Brown 99
Nick Rabonza 99
Tom Penner 01
Kelvin Smith 01
Dan Spottsville 01
Kubasaki High
Andy Smith 99
PJ Hughes 99
Sam Roy 01
OCSI
Toni Arakaki 00
Jamie Holland 98
Toussaint Dupree 00
Josh Ohashi 99
Mark Esparza 92
Faith Academy
Joe Saunders 00
Matt Castagna 00
Kirk Long 07
Steve Crueger 01
Darren Meisel
CAJ
Chad Wright
Carl Long 98
Levi Cole 01
Matt Regier 01
Shea Ramquist 01
EJ King
Julius Pangilinan 97
Joel Samson 00
Jason Cleavinger 01
Jerome Encomienda
Chris Ford 01
PJ
I thought PJ Hughes played for Kadena?? I'm almost certain he did and not for kubasaki...so would you take Hughes or Smith at the point for your all kadena squad? Or both and bump someone else
Did he?
As I recall he did played for Kubasaki, but correct me if I am mistaken!! If I'm mistaken I would still go with Kelvin Smith at point since he had a nice game along with his hops! Dont recall anymore names for Kubasaki but I still remember their faces and so goes with the other teams! I'll try to recall their names so I could post more especially at the Kanto area and Guam!
Possible Kubasaki "best five"
OK, try this Kubasaki lineup:
Andy Smith, shooting guard, Class of 1999
Marty Walton, center, Class of 1992
Anthony Butler/Ken Sullivan, power forward, Class of 1988
Rich Sheffield, point guard, Class of 1997
Sam Roy, small forward, Class of 2001
Line ups.
Yeah I'll stick with my EJ king line up but still shaky with my OCSI and CAJ line ups.Can someone help?!
Possible CAJ "best five"
Topgear, try this Knights lineup:
Colby Long, shooting guard, Class of 1999
Alan Kropp, power forward, Class of 1993
Mark Joseph, small forward, Class of 1986
Steve Hall, point guard, Class of 1988
Andy Sytsma, center, Class of 1989
Nice Selections for the Knights there
Oh yeah I remember them, especially Andy Systsma. The knights always played fundamental basketball as I remember them!! How about OCSI? got any good ones for them? Both teams always played hard and hustled back at D and they love to press when its crunch time.
This is a quality list.
This is a quality list. Although, Colby Long was class of 1998.
Too bad the list only covers the last 25 years. CAJ had some ballers back in the early 70's when they won the Far East title 4 years in a row. My dad played on the team when they won it in 1971, 1972, and 1973.... and my uncle was on the team in 1970 and 1971. Not to say that they should be included.. but I've just heard stories about players from back in the day. (I remember hearing something about an Edgren playing scoring 70 points in one game!)
great players
hey orny, its been fun reading about all the great players from before, during, and after my time. cant remember everyone's position but here are some of the names that i played against who were really good between '95-'98:
tony fratangelo- kinnick
rich alvarez- kinnick
han lee- seoul american
brandon roaf- yokota
oz ???-st marys
jon guilfoil-st mary's
billy gulley- edgren
denny huddechek-asij
royce shipp- kadena
ben leonard- faith
jonathan grandi-morrison
demetrius dixon- zama- never played against him but i remember him and he was a legend even at my school
Brandon Roaf was real good, but...
Colby,
Good look on Brandon Roaf.
Brandon Roaf was a great combo guard. In our league, he totally dominated the competition while I was at Zama. Forget top five, having seen him play, only the legend of Demetrius Dixon looms larger.
I never saw Demetrius Dixon play, but tales of his exploits loomed years after this departure. I saw a film of him getting punched after posterizing a Yokusaka forward. The entire gymnasium erupted. Army against Navy. All True! Demetrius Dixon, in short, would embarrass you. The only way he could be stopped - sucker punch!
Orny, am I lying?
William Tate
Zama Varsity '96, '97
Brandon Roaf and Cory Mashburn
Brandon Roaf was a great player. He played along side Cory Mashburn and those two were a great duo. Mashburn actually went to NC and got honorable mention all state the next year. What about Mashburn on the list?
Thats a solid best five for the Dragons
Yeah thats a nice line up you have mixed with! I'd probably go with Ken Sullivan at power forward if I remembered him correctly! For my other Best fives, I think I'll stick with them especially for Kadena and Faith.
knowitall hey orney it's
knowitall
hey orney it's cool that you have posted the fab 5 for all these schools but what about Edgren? How could you possibly forget about Carlos Watley and Shamar Riddick just to name a couple. I would like to see what 5 you think should get this title.
Haven't forgotten
The official Best Fives will begin to appear in this space starting in late January. We're still compiling them. :)
OH YEAH, THAT'LL WORK
THANKS SOO VERY MUCH FOR LISTING ME AS BEST POINT GUARD. WE HAD ALOT OF REALLY GOOD PLAYERS THAT YEAR, WE ALL LOVED PLAYING UNDER THE LEADERSHIP AND GUIDANCE OF COACH HOBBS. I DONT KNOW THE OTHER 4 GUYS, BUT I PLAYED A YEAR WITH ANDY SMITH, WHICH I MET LATER ON WHILE SERVING IN THE US ARMY. AGAIN THANK YOU SOO MUCH.
Gotta mix the line up for E.J. King
For the E.J. King Boys,
Julius Pangilinan, center, class of 1997
L.A. Brown, point guard, class of 1999
Ron Martin, power forward, class of 1998
Joel Samson, small forward, class of 1999
Jason Cleavinger, shooting guard, class of 2001
And let me throw out a couple of names for the E.J. King Girls,
Cebronica Scott, shooting guard, class of 1999 and Marita ????, can't think of her last name. Marita's game was unreal.
Re: Gotta mix the line up for E.J. King
OK, how's about we fill in the rest of the E.J. King girls' names:
Cebronica Scott, point guard, Class of 1999 (MVP of 1997 Class A Tournament; played senior year at Nile C. Kinnick).
Gina Mecham, center, Class of 1990 (MVP of Class A tournament off a third-place team)
Stacy Morgan, power forward, Class of 1993 (MVP, led Cobras to school-first Class A title)
Marita Johnson, small forward, Class of 1995 (MVP of 1995 Class A tournament, could play every position on court with total aplomb).
Kristia Suriben, shooting guard, Class of 2007. The last two years, as Suriben went, so did the Cobras.
Re: Gotta mix the line up for E.J. King
Hey Dave!
Regarding the E.J. Kings girls', I would definitely add Annabelle Cruz to the mix. She was a great athlete and sunk the last second shot that made us the 1997 Class A champs!
CS
Belle Tolls In Pusan
Cebronica:
What a memorable shot that was. Just seconds left, Belle finds herself with the ball at an impossible angle with two Seisen defenders on her. Somehow, she leaps over them, gets the shot away at an awkward angle, it banks off the glass through the net easy as you please. 25-24, E.J. King over Seisen. In all my years of covering basketball, the second buzzer-beater shot to win a Far East tournament. Incredibly, just two months after E.J. King's boys hit a buzzer-beater to beat the unbeatable Faith team for the title.
You remember when you played 21 with that referee down in Pusan? And beat him? Nobody in that whole gymnasium was cheering louder than I was. :)
I remember!!
Hey Dave,
Regarding Belle, that was an incredible shot!! And yes, I do remember that game of 21! That was a fun moment. Another challenge - another victim ;-) .. LOL
CAJ
The CAJ beast five is not even close, the only guy that should make it out of those is Koby Long 98 not Carl Long he is our coach
changes
I made a little changes on my best five for OCSI, thru the help of people who knew the school better.
Toni Arakaki (PG) 00 played two season, 4th on all time scoring list ,
Joshua Ohashi (SG) 99 holds record for most three pointers made
Toussaint Dupree (SF) 00 All time Scoring leader
Kirk Ware (PF) 99 All time rebounding leader
Jamie Holland (C) 98 Far East Tournament MVP
I enjoyed watching this school while stationed at Iwakuni thru the late 90's, they were a quick team, loves a pressing game, only disadvantage was their lack of height! What do you think of this line up Mr.Ornauer? Sounds good?
no doubt
You know your stuff!! I went to OCSI from kindergarten - 9th grade before transferring to CAJ for my Jr. and Sr. years, and I agree with what you have down. The guys you listed were definitely part of the "golden" years of basketball at OCSI. I played for both Chad Wright and Carl Long and it was interesting to see the similarity of the two programs.
Reasoner...
Reasoner....your name sounds familiar! Were you the three point champion at Far East Before? Hmh did you have a brother? Yeah, OCSI amuzed me whenever I watch them play since they were really a quick and short team! Yeah I knew Chad Wright but not that close though met him at the tournament along with Carl Long way back I dont quite remembr what year, around 99 or 00. I must say when both teams played each other it was a pressing game which I love watching! OCSI had their leading scorer sidelne at that time dont know what the caused was but that short guard they had Arakaki carried them almost pulling a win but fatigue I guess payed its toll at the end! I dont really know a lot about Arakaki but I admired this guy a lot since we were about the same height but this guy played much bigger than that!!
help
hey Nreasoner, do you know more about the players I listed? Well if you do write more about them since I only know a lil about this school, thanks
not off hand
I don't really know figures and stuff right off hand.. but I know Toussaint has the rebounding record now at OCSI. I think he pulled down something like 43 rebounds in a a game. One other name you might want to consider for OCSI's list is Paul Barnett. He graduated in 1997 and (I'm pretty sure) he has the assist record at OCSI. As for the other guys, they were all amazing players but I don't know too much about their accomplishments. I recently talked to Chad Wright and I told him to post a list.... not sure if he's going to do it though.
Yeah, at the 2003 tournament
Yeah, at the 2003 tournament in Seoul I hit 9 three's against Seoul American (unofficial Far East tournament record I think...) and then won the three point contest as well... and then was Far East All-Star in 2004. And yes I have a brother.. two of them actually. Dan Reasoner played in the post for OCSI (class of 01) and Elias Reasoner (class of 05) played point guard with me at CAJ. So you've probably seen the name "Reasoner" around a bit..
Yeah.. I remember hearing about that tournament in 2000 (class "A"). Those two teams were probably the best teams OCSI has had talent-wise. They got 3rd in '98 but the teams in '99 and '00 probably had the most individual talent. (w/ Arakaki, Dupree, Ohashi, Ware, etc..)
best five
Here is, from what i have seen, is the best five for Zama
Corey Stacie
Wilberto Badillo
Carlos Walters
Demetrius Dixon
Donovan Nance
All-Trojan
Here goes my all-trojan team:
Daniel Duplessies '02 - C: Big Body, gave 15-20 pts and 10-15 boards a game, controlled paint
Kevin Maxwell '87 - F : Great Athlete, could do anything
Cory Stacy '04(?)- F/G: Versatile, Had all around game, score, defend, pass...could play any position on floor
Demetrius Dixon '94 - G: Legendary at Zama...Enough Said...Zama's GOAT
Johnny Koyama '00 - G: 20 pts, 10+ assts and 6 boards...inch for inch one of the best
Possible Zama American boys "best five"
Was thinking more along the lines of the following:
Kevin Maxwell, shooting guard, Class of 1987
Malcolm Hardaway, small forward, Class of 1984
Chris Dabbieri, center, Class of 1992
Wilberto Badillo, point guard, Class of 2007
Johnny Koyama, power forward, Class of 2000
Zama Team & more...
Dear Dave,
I appreciate the possible selection and I look forward to seeing your final sections for all the teams. Are the final choices going to be in the newspaper or are they going to be in a blog?
P.S. I like the yokota selections. Especially Cooper, he is the best guard i've ever played against. I even had the chance to play with him during summer league basketball and i've never played with such a smart player. If you continue the "best five" to the best five in the Pacific. I think he should be strongly considered.
Re: Zama Team & more...
Berto: These will be posted on the blog. Thank you for your compliment. :)
Pacific Best Five, a great idea!!
Yeah, I agree about the compliment above. Its a great idea to finally have a selection of the Pacific's best five over the past 25 years!! I must say it would be a tough time to select the best out of the best since every player had their own unique styles and talents when it comes to the game! As I have followed this blog the past week or so, I have yet to see selections from Guam, South Korea, and Taiwan. They have a whole bunch of talented players too as I remembered! Well it would be exciting to see the final selections of the best five from each school, from Large schools (Class AA) to Small schools (Class A). I give much respect to Mr. Ornauer for taking the time to select his opinion of who deserves to be called the Best Five of their respective school programs, since I know this is one tough decision to make.....
Zama
Orny, Sir you are too kind, I am honored by the thought. I have heard of all these guys except for Hardaway (too early for my time I guess). What type of player was he back in the day?
PS: For Zama girls, Tonia Grant ('00) must be considered. Led Zama in scoring 3 year in a row at near 20 a game and deadly sharp shooting guard.
Keep it up Orny!
Re: Zama
OK, how about this team:
Tonia Grant, shooting guard, Class of 2000
Tiffani Wright, center, Class of 2006
Terrie Waugh, small forward, Class of 1992
Laura Smith, power forward, Class of 1991
Melody Halloran, point guard, would have been Class of 1993, were she not taken from us in an unfortunate traffic accident.
zama
was maxwell the football player? i thought koyawa was a guard not a foward? Nice picks Mr. Ornauer! I will take that zama team any day
Sorry for an error I made earlier
I responded to a blog indicating Rich Alvarez was from Yokota, I had an error on this one he was from Kinnick I meant. By the way, he plays Pro ball down in the Philippines now a days, just wanted to mention that since I was there for a trip two months ago and I noticed him during one their Pro games. Gabe Lombard of St. John's class of 01 as I believe is somewhere in Australia or New Zealand playing Pro ball too. Just wanted to post that since I still cant figure out the names of some of players I want to select!
Taegu American High School boys basketball best five
Dave,
Well I just wanted to say that I really think this is a very good idea to list the Pacific high school "best fives" of the past 25 years. I have to warn you up front, am a bit bias to the list that I will put down, since I was a player on that list, and I have followed Taegu American High School boys basketball since leaving in 1989. The list is as follows:
Alonzo Mosley, forward, class of 1991
J.R. Collins, guard, class of 1991
Roy Murphy, center, class of 1991
Andre Joyner, forward, class of 1990
Stanley Pulley, guard, class of 1989
This starting five went 47-0 over two season, winning two Far East "Class A" titles (1988, 1989), and the Christmas Classic (1988), which included the then undefeated Kubasaki Dragons (the 1988 & 1989 Far East "Class AA" champs)
Taegu American Best Five
Stan:
Great to hear from you. I remember you and your cohorts well. I believe you meant Roy Morgan as your center, correct?
There have been others who've come along since your departure, such as Tylance and Tyrance Hines (1994), Mike Parker (1996) and many more.
Consider this a work in progress, and your input is very valued.
Hope the years have been good to you! :)
It was 1989 not 1988
I played in the 1989 classic (gaining all tournamnet team). Taegu did beat us, barely, on their home floor. We did not have 2 players, including Ken Butler, who had passport difficulties. A full squad and 1988 would have been different.
Osan Lady Cougars
Hey Dave!
I thought I'd show my alma mater a little love on here and list the top 5 female players that I recall during my time at Osan. Not sure what years they played specifically, but it was definitely sometime between 1996-2002. In no particular order:
Salena Barnes
Sarah McDonald
Jana Jazcinski
Jennie Barker
Lori Shields
Re: Osan Lady Cougars
Jenn:
Thank you for your input! :)
Mina Davis (2005) and Margaret Nurse (2006) need mention since they were part of Class A champion teams also.
For a school that's only been open less than 15 years, talk about some athletics talent that's passed through there!
Fun, ain't it?
CAJ BEST 5
CAJ best 5
1. Colby Long, shooting guard-98
2. Alan Kropp, power forward-94
3. Mark Joseph, small forward-86
4. Andy Sytsma, center-89
5. Dan Kunnecke, point guard-98
Re: CAJ BEST 5
Carl:
Thought about Dan Kunnecke when putting CAJ's Best 5 together. Steve Hall gets my nod at point. But having seen both play, Dan's a pretty good option. :)
CAJ best 5
Dave,
I hate to single out any of my players(present or former) and rate them--such a tough task. I will leave that to your final choices. My selection of Dan Kunnecke was based on the fact that he was FE 3-point champion in 1998, FE all star in 1998, and rated #10 on CAJ's all time scoring list. Steve was a FE all star in 1988, and rated #40 on CAJ's all time scoring list. I would like to include both of them, but you said 5, not 6. Both are solid choices.
Coach Long
Coach Long,
I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to play in the '99 Kanto All Star game. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day and talking to the appropriate people to get that cleared for me. It meant a great deal to me and my family. Thanks again!!!
-Johnny Koyama-
I'm honored!! thanks
Hey, thanks for the guys who listed my name in here...Never thought anyone would post my name in the best five for each school..Yeah, I heard about this blog from a friend of mine. Great stuff Mr.Orny...two thumbs up on this blog! I agree with TOPGEAR on what he has, but would like to add more players if I could, including the likes of Paul Barnett 97, Keola Lacar 99 and Norman Hokayama 99..they were all guards and quick ones too!! Is there an official list of best five for OCSI yet?
Yo wats up Nathaniel...regards to ur brothers and parents. TTYL
A virtual way-back machine
Toni:
The beauty of this topic ... especially for history buffs like me ... is we can go back in time and people are coming out of the woodwork that we've long forgotten ... or at least the names have been on the tips of our fingers. :)
Thanks for hopping aboard! :)
My pleasure
Mr. Orny,
I don't remember if we had met before, but I think we did when EJ king came down to Okinawa for a series of games againts OCSI, Kadena and Kubasaki. I dont even think you have ever seen me play back then since it was only for two seasons!! I can't believe how years flies by, and now I am part of it! Though I only played for OCSI for two seasons since I was a transfer from Walter Johnson HS Maryland, I had a lot of memories in it, especially with our Coach, Chad Wright. One thing I can tell you about this guy is he knows how to coach and play basketball well! About me I'm still playing the game I love and been traveling places that would take me, tough life but thats how it goes I guess!
Once again it was nice to see a blog about the history of Far East Basketball which a lot has forgotten. It was my pleasure to drop by and write a line, and it was good to see some familiar names who has come aboard too!
What a task you have to make Mr. Orny, and wish you luck on picking the best out of the best!
Hey there
Hey its good to see you here Arakaki, I admired you when you played basketball at FET. I remember you being the shortest guy out the court, standing at 5'7 at least since that's my height and we were pretty much the same. Yeah eventhough you guys didnt do good at that tournament placing wise you showed a lot of the people watching that you were a skilled player. Once again great seeing you in here, hope to hear from you soon