Kinnick defensive specialist Chizuru Nguyen says events like the YUJO tournament helps develop better teamwork. (Erick Chedd Ricardo/Special to Stripes)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan – Michele Holloway says she and her Nile C. Kinnick teammates hope to gain more from the 10th American School In Japan YUJO tournament than just a high finish like last year’s run to second place.
“It’s good preparation for Far East,” Holloway, a senior, said of the two-day event that starts Friday in the three gyms at ASIJ’s Chofu campus in Tokyo’s western suburbs. DODEA-Pacific’s Far East Division I tournament is scheduled for Oct. 17-19 at Kubasaki.
“You gain a lot of confidence, especially at ASIJ. A lot of people come in to watch those matches,” Holloway said. “It helped me to be more comfortable, deal with the pressure better, be more competitive and be more sportsmanlike.”
This year’s YUJO field is smaller than years past. Eight boys and eight girls teams populate the field; the tournament had been twice as big in the past and lasted three days, instead of two.
Kinnick is joined by defending Far East Division II champion Yokota, and two teams from Okinawa, Kadena and four-time YUJO champion Kubasaki, which won the tournament last year.
With two Tokyo-based international schools in the field, host ASIJ and Seisen International, the DODEA teams gain valuable match experience in the run-up to Far East, Holloway said.
“I think it’s more intense. The teams play harder there and you gain more from it,” Holloway said. “And you meet a bunch of people you haven’t met before.”
Kadena’s and Kubasaki’s cross country teams travel off island for inter-district meets on Saturday, the Dragons at Taipei and Panthers at Yokota. (Heather Mendoza/Special to Stripes)
Red Devils defensive specialist Chizuru Nguyen is another player who said YUJO confers benefits that you might not otherwise see in regular-season play.
“Teamwork was the most important. That was the biggest thing,” said Nguyen, who will play in her second YUJO tournament.
Kinnick senior Leona Turner is in her third YUJO and says she remembers how nervous she was in her first one in 2022. “It will help everybody get more comfortable, bond and play better,” Turner said.
Yokota is another YUJO regular, and with just two players returning from last year’s D-II champion team, getting used to tournament play will help the Panthers improve their game, Yokota players said.
“We’ll be playing teams at a higher level which will bring up our level and show what we can do,” Panthers sophomore Camryn Cort said. Yokota hosts the Far East Division II tournament Oct. 17-19.
The YUJO is the second inter-district competition in as many weeks for Yokota, which played matches last Saturday at Osan in South Korea.
The boys YUJO field includes seven international-school teams, plus Shogun, a boys club team from Okinawa comprised of players from Kadena, Kubasaki and Okinawa Christian School International. It’s the second year Shogun is playing in the tournament.
Teams are split into pools of four teams each for pool-play matches Friday. Single-elimination matches follow on Saturday, with the girls final at 4:45 p.m. and the boys at 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, Kadena’s and Kubasaki’s cross country teams will venture off Okinawa for inter-district competition on Saturday.
William Rhoades, Allie Sims and the Panthers head to Yokota, where they’ll run against DODEA-Japan’s Kinnick, Zama, Yokota and Robert D. Edgren and Tokyo-area international schools in a road-course meet at Yokota Air Base.
The Dragons, led by their top runners Noah Starr and Maggie McCall travel to Taipei American School for a meet against international schools in Taiwan.
Those meets come 2½ weeks before the Far East meet for D-I and D-II schools, scheduled for Oct. 21-22 at the Resol no Mori training facility in Chiba Prefecture east of Tokyo.
