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Pacific SportsBlogOkinawa-based sports reporter Dave Ornauer on military-related sports in the Far East. |
Following the 38th Hong Kong International School Holiday Basketball Tournament
Posted November 22nd, 2007 by Dave OrnauerCampers, click here to follow this week's 38th Hong Kong International School Holiday Basketball Tournament.
Talk about an All-Star cast: The defending champions of ALL FOUR of last February's DODDS-Pacific Far East High School Tournaments are in the house:
-- Faith Academy's boys won their third straight Class A tournament at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, but coach Toby Landers is having to make do this year without the services of three-time MVP Kirk Long.
-- Faith Academy's girls won their seventh DODDS-Pacific Far East title in 11 years at Camp Walker, Daegu, South Korea. Speaking of Longs, they have junior Janel among a handful of returning stars, along with coach Dan Beaver, back after a one-year hiatus.
-- Kubasaki's boys were the surprise of last year's Class AA Tournament at Seoul American, upsetting favored Zama American in the semifinals, then topping the tournament hosts in the championship. Never before had a first-year coach (Jon Fick) accomplished that. He has breakout star Jacorian Callier and Chris Cooke, among others, back from that team.
-- And Kadena's girls, whose 85-39 championship triumph on their home court over American School In Japan is a record margin for any Far East final, bring back perhaps the most experienced unit in coach Ken Hudson's five seasons, including senior Britney Gilliam and rising star sophomore Aja' "Sky" Walker.
-- Seoul American's boys and girls return no fewer than 18 of the 20 players who suited up for last year's Class AA tournaments, in which the Falcons boys finished second on their home court and the girls took third, losing to Kadena in the semifinals at the Panther Pit.
Should be a fun weekend. :)

Amazing Tournament and Website
Dave,
Thanks for the link to the HKIS Tournament, absolutely amazing coverage; Live web-cams, photo galleries, team rosters, live scores, hoop cam; all updated in real time...what can I say! This tournament is a true legacy. Teams that hope to compete for a championship are kidding themselves if they think they can win it all unless they are willing to play in tournaments such as these. I guarantee that you're probably looking at least three, if not all four of this year's Far East Class A and AA champions from this field.
Hope they squeezed in their turkey dinners between games...Good Luck to all teams, it's looks like some intense competition...again, kudos to the tournament organizers...this is pure gold.
Pacific High School Basketball
Looking forward to the ratings and your talking points about the various teams.
anybody know why Japan schools didn't attend?
With all of this talk about basketball and championships - I'm just curious why it appears that no Japan DoDDS teams attended the tournament.
I realize that there's a New Years tournament in January at Yokota - but that means that some teams will get to play in two tournaments, some will play in one, and some will play in none.
Just wondering about the inequalities here.
simply an issue of housing
Speaking as one of the host coaches, we wish we could invite a host of Japan DoDDs teams to the tournament but we simply have housing constraints. We do our best to homestay every team and even this year we had trouble.
Also the tournament is not just a DoDDS tournament as we have some of the best IASAS schools as well (eg, Singapore American, Taipei American, International School Bangkok) as well an independent schools like Faith Academy and the host, HKIS.
It provides the tourney with a unique flavor: part international, part IASAS and part DoDDS.
At present we have 8 boys teams and 8 girls teams and we just can't host anymore, the tourney would become a logistical nightmare. Looking after 16 teams is enough of an undertaking as is when you're home staying people.
Please understand that personally, I'd love to see Kinnick, Yokota and Zama here too, it just a matter of not being able to host everyone.