Kadena's Jeremiah Drummer, Kubasaki's Anthony Castle and St. Mary's and Nile C. Kinnick resume wrestling Saturday with the 9th Rumble on the Rock Invitational Tournament at Kadena. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa – A handful of DODEA-Pacific wrestling teams are wasting no time getting back into the swing following the holiday break.
Kubasaki, Nile C. Kinnick and host Kadena will hit the mats Saturday in the 9th iteration of the Rumble on the Rock tournament. Joining the three will be St. Mary’s, the defending Far East tournament Division I champions, and Hokubu-Norin, a Japanese team.
While the host Panthers are unbeaten thus far in four dual meets against Kubasaki, this is the first time they’ll see competitors other than the Dragons, and Kadena coach Joey Wood could not be happier.
“This is the best team we’ve had since I’ve been coaching,” said Wood, who’s in his third season at the Panthers helm and wrestled for the Red Devils in the mid-2000s.
“We’ve got a solid lineup, but seeing St. Mary’s and Kinnick, we’ll get some experience against guys outside of Kubasaki,” Wood said.
Rumble is an open tournament, so second- and third-line wrestlers from each of the teams are also entered.
“It gives them mat experience against higher-level wrestlers and helps them understand how an individual tournament works, which is huge,” Wood said.
Kadena is hosting the Rumble for the second time, and it’s the second time the tournament’s been held since the coronavirus pandemic; it was canceled in 2021 and 2022. Prior to COVID, Kubasaki served as the tournament host.
Elsewhere on the mat, DODEA-Korea’s three teams plus Seoul Foreign return to action with a quad-meet Saturday at Osan.
All other DODEA-Japan teams besides Kinnick are scheduled to gather at Matthew C. Perry on Saturday.
Basketball season also resumes in Japan and Korea this weekend. Osan hosts Humphreys in non-league games on Friday, then the Cougars travel to Daegu for Korea Red Division regular-season games Saturday.
On the DODEA-Japan hardwood, E.J. King’s boys welcome Robert D. Edgren for the first time since the pandemic. Kinnick’s boys and girls host Perry, while Yokota and Zama entertain Kanto Plain non-DODEA teams on Friday and Saturday.
