The second annual Global Challenge Bowl featuring Team Stars & Stripes and the Japanese under-19 Junior National Team kicks off Saturday, March 21, 2009 at Kawasaki Stadium in the Tokyo suburb of Kawasaki in front of an anticipated crowd of 7,000.
Team Stars & Stripes is led by Santa Rita High School (Tucson, AZ) head coach and three-time Arizona state champion JEFF SCURRAN and Team Japan is coached by Osaka Sangyo University Junior & Senior High School head coach TAKAO YAMAZAKI.
Team Stars & Stripes features seniors from 30 US high schools covering 12 states as well as an American school in Japan. Players were selected not only for football ability, but also as all-round student-athletes. Texas-based Global Football assisted Coach Scurran in identifying suitable players and organized the unique visit to Japan.
“I know from the wonderful experience we had in Japan last year that selecting young men who will be a credit to themselves, their school and their country is as important as picking them for their football abilities,” explained Scurran. “We will visit a military facility, the Kawasaki Mayor’s office and some very special historical sites, so this is much more than simply an overseas football game.”
The team will arrive in Tokyo on Saturday, March 14 and will spend two days living and practicing at the Yokota Station US Air Base. The Commander of the 374th Airlift Wing, Colonel John F. Newell III, will address Team Stars & Stripes at one of the practices, which will be held on the Yokota High School field at 10.30am and 2.30pm on Sunday, and 8.30am and 1.30pm on Monday.
The 45 players will then live with Japanese host families for the remainder of the stay. The week will feature daily practices in Kawasaki Stadium and cultural visits to a local high school, places of historical significance and popular tourist attractions, concluding with the bowl game on Saturday, March 21. Following a free day spent sightseeing with host families, the group will return to the United States on Monday, March 23.
Among the players selected by coach Scurran, several committed to US colleges on national signing day, including two Somerset High School football players from Somerset, Wisconsin. Senior BRYAN WITZMANN is one of Wisconsin’s top two-way starters, playing offensive line and defensive end and accepted a scholarship from South Dakota State University. Witzmann received First-team All-State and All-Region for both positions in his senior year. Teammate DARRIN EMMECK who is a two-time First-team All-Conference defensive lineman and will be playing football at Minnesota State University in Moorhead, Minnesota.
Running back JASON SIMPSON (Woodside High School, CA), who signed a letter of intent with San Jose State, should play a key role in Team Stars & Stripes offensive game plan. Simpson was a two-time first-team All-County selection who rushed for 1,336 yards, averaged 7.0 yards per carry and led the county in scoring with 122 points on 20 touchdowns and one two-point conversion.
Linebacker TRAVIS FREEMAN should also play a big part for Team Stars & Stripes. Freeman, who was ranked number three linebacker in the state of Ohio in the 2008 season, has committed to Ball State University and posted 97 tackles, six sacks, and two interceptions his senior year at Cleveland Grenville High School in Ohio.
Team Stars & Stripes will feature two American-born students studying in Japan, STEPHEN HAYMAN and NICK WELLS, and a female player, MAILE LABOR (Santa Rita, Tucson AZ), on the all-star roster. Hayman and Wells attend the American School in Japan in Tokyo. Hayman has been playing football for four years and has received Most Valuable Lineman honors. Wells may only have played football for two years, but he quickly became effective in the sport being named Rookie of the Year in 2007 and Most Valuable Linebacker in 2008.
Labor will be the kicker for the US team. She was a member of head coach Jeff Scurran’s Santa Rita football team that reached the 4A Arizona State Championship game in the 2008 season.
Team Japan head coach Yamazaki and his coaching staff held a tryout on Sunday, February 22, at Nihon University. The players selected attended a training camp at Ritsumeikan University from February 27 to March 4 to prepare for the second annual Global Challenge Bowl.
Under coach Yamazaki, the Japanese under-19 team that Team Stars & Stripes will face will travel to Canton, Ohio to compete in the 2009 IFAF Junior World Championship this summer. The inaugural event will be played from June 27 to July 5 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Fawcett Stadium and will feature an eight team, four-continent field of Canada, USA, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Sweden, France and New Zealand.
The 2009 Global Challenge Bowl will be officiated by USA Football Officiating Consultant and veteran Big Ten Conference football official BILL LeMONNIER. The Chicago resident has been a college official since 1989 and was selected for 12 college bowl games in his 15 years as a Big Ten referee. He also oversees USA Football’s officiating curriculum with USA Football Officiating Director and NFL Umpire Tony Michalek. LeMonnier was the head referee for the 2008 GE Global Challenge Bowl, which was won by Japan 24-14.
