Sports
Far East stars won't play in AAU tournament
Stars and Stripes
June 25, 2003
Osan American Cougars guard A.J. Scott drives to the hoops for the West team during a February 2003 game. Scott was one of nine Department of Defense Dependents Schools players earmarked for a Far East All-Star team that was supposed to play in an AAU tournament next month in Detroit, a trip that was called off. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Osan American Cougars guard A.J. Scott drives to the hoops for the West team during a February 2003 game. Scott was one of nine Department of Defense Dependents Schools players earmarked for a Far East All-Star team that was supposed to play in an AAU tournament next month in Detroit, a trip that was called off. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Junior Steve Davis of the Osan American Cougars goes up to the basket against Allan Middleton of the Andersen Bombers of Guam. Davis was one of nine players earmarked for a Far East All-Star team that was scheduled to attend an AAU tournament next month in Detroit. That trip was called off, its organizer and Osan assistant coach Dietrick Glover said, because not enough players turned in the paperwork and money needed. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
There won’t be a Far East high school all-star boys basketball team at next month’s AAU senior tournament in Detroit after all.
Dietrick Glover, Osan American assistant coach and organizer of the venture, said Monday he canceled the effort because too many players and families failed to meet a June 15 deadline to turn in required paperwork and pay for the trip.
“I’m very disappointed,” Glover said.
Glover, for two years an assistant with Osan’s high school and base teams, picked 15 players from the Far East All-Star Game in February.
Glover wanted to bring them together for a week of practice at Osan in mid-July, then travel to Detroit for the AAU tournament, which begins July 26.
The Far East team received an exemption into the tournament so it wouldn’t have to qualify they way many teams in the States must.
But Glover said he received all needed paperwork and transportation and entry fees from only eight players, mostly guards.
“You can’t practice with eight people. You can’t scrimmage each other or do two-a-days. The minimum I would have gone with was 10,” Glover said.
And he couldn’t wait any longer for other players to turn in passports, birth certificates, entry forms and money because Glover needed time, he said, to register the team and its players with the AAU and officially enter the tournament, a process he said would take at least a month.
“I already extended it [the deadline] as far as I could,” he said, adding that he initially wanted a June 1 deadline.
“I feel bad because a lot of parents bought tickets for their kids to come here for the workout,” Glover said. “This was almost a done deal. I had the gym reserved [for practice], set up some dances for the kids while they were hear, go on a DMZ tour the Saturday before we leave.”
“I’m not too happy,” said senior Bill Gray of Kubasaki of Okinawa, one of ths players chosen for the team. “I was hoping to play in this tournament, get recognized and maybe one day get a chance at a scholarship.”
Glover said he will try again next year to enter a team in the AAU senior tournament in Detroit or the junior tournament for underclassmen in Orlando, Fla.