European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday. February 22, 1990 the stars and stripes Page 21prep Pickin s new Kingpins assured in tourneys new champions will be crowned saturday when All the Small schools basketball tournaments action is completed in Baum older s Hall of champions. Neither the shape boys nor accent girls who gave the Competition a definite bin nor flavor last year with three impressive games finished among the top four in last week s Small schools Northern regional at shape. Giessen Berlin. Brussels and Hahn qualified in the boys Competition Matching teams from a North and the Bennor Brussels the Only club from the latter conference making it. They will be joined by a Sotich representatives Bamberg. Augsburg and 1989 runner up Munich and the sole a Central survivor bad or Cugnach. Bin nor competitors Brussels and International school of Brussels and a North teams Baum older and Hahn Advance from the North regional to the Small schools girls Field where they will be joined by four clubs from a South a Augsburg. Bamberg Munich and Vilseck which finished second last year. Augsburg. Berlin Giessen and Chat Auroux which is Long gone from the Dodds scene have won three boys championships apiece the apaches in 1973, 1974 and 1984 and Berlin in 1977, 1982 and 1983. Giessen created Small schools tournament history by winning its championships Back to Back to Back starting in 1986, its first season As a Dodds High school and Charlie Toth was acclaimed stars and stripes coach of the year each time As the Griffins compiled a 42-game winning skein. Giessen failed to qualify for last year s Small schools tournament after its three year Streak. But the Griffins have to be one of the favourites along with Berlin this year. Berlin beat Giessen in two thrillers at Berlin in a Norih Competition but the Griffins turned the tide on the bears 7472 in another Down to the wire struggle in last weeks regional title game at shape. Bamberg and bad or Cugnach won the a South and a Central conference championships respectively. And the Barons nudged the bearcats 46-44 in the Southern regional finale. Bamberg won the championship in 1984 bad or Cugnach finished second in 1961 and it was Giessen s first title victim four yeas ago. Munich and Small schools championship Gam Esben Abrams have been relatively commonplace Over the years. Ernie butlers cagers won championships in 1976 and 1981 and then ran a record tying four year string starting in 1983. The Mustangs also finished second in 1975, 1980 and 1982. However this does t appear to be a year of the Mustangs. They finished a dismal fourth in a South Competition but they took a third in the tournament. And they run into Baum older. One of the pre tourney favourites in the first game thursday morning. Baum older has never won a Small schools title but it owns a big schools Crown having Defeated Frankfurt in 1985. The bucs have finished second four times a 1977. 1979. 1981 and 1986. The Spain tournament also is on this weekends Agenda. The Madrid american school which competed in the league for the first time this year dominated the boys Competition and looms As the favorite at Rota. The Rota girls arc favored in the double elimination tournament. After saturday Only the Turkey and . Basketball tournaments and the Turkey wrestling tournament will remain on the Winter Agenda. They take place next week both Turkey events at Ankara and the . Cage finals at Alconbury. And All that will remain to Complete the Winter sports season will be the selection of the stars and stripes All Europe basketball teams the boy and girl players of the year and the coaches of the year. Deadline for nominations is March 12.�?� a a one thing that is not expected to be crowned when the . Stages its wrestling tournament at Lakenheath is a new Champion. Bob Whelan s Lakenheath lancers who have won 70 straight dual matches will be gunning for their seventh straight conference championship saturday. Seven grapplers from Alfred t. Mahan High school in be Finvik Iceland arc coming to the to compete in the . Championships. Quot we have a pretty Good wrestling program Here at Lakenheath Quot Whelan said on tuesday. �?�1 have lamented Over the years about our inability to prove How Good by being denied the Opportunity to compete in the Central european championships or a legitimate Post season championship for All the schools in Dodds. Quot it would necessitate Only minor changes in our . Schedule to enable our champions to go to Germany for the Central european championships. I know that our champions certainly would be representative in such Competition. London has improved immensely the past couple of years Woodbridge is pretty Good and Alconbury and Croughton Are getting better again. Croughton used to be a powerhouse but it was Down a couple of years Quot Whelan added. Whelan s clubs have battled the elite of Europe in Christmas tournaments the past couple years and when his kids battled the stars from Heidelberg Ramstein and other Continental Powers he said Quot we held our own probably had an Edge on some of  Whelan is right absolutely right. Dodds officials in Germany and Bennor have made arrangements in recent years for the championship football team from the . To participate in the Small schools playoff program. Why  a and should t a the wrestlers be afforded the same Opportunity the . Teams could be included in one or two of the qualifying regional a and there would be no need to change the current formal whereby the top four wrestlers in each weight category Advance to the Central european championships. Or the conference could stage its own meet and the champions could Advance to the be necessitating Only minor revisions in setting up the tournament Field. There were two errors in recording the results of last weeks Central european meet. Augsburg s Steve Melito finished third at 130 pounds not fourth and accent won its fifth straight Small schools title not its fourth according to Lions Mentor Jim Abraham. I also made a mistake in last weeks column when reporting about . Werner s wrestling Success he is competing for the air Force Academy not the . Military Academy at West Point. The Start and str Pat House Hunting army sports chief comes Home to a different world by Rob Staggenborg staff writer Jim Brown has come Home but he s still looking for a House. He has returned to Europe after a two year absence to head us Reurs redefined sports program. He arrived feb. 12 without much fanfare after a successful tenure As koreans top army sports figure. The latter assignment took him from Frankfurt a v corps offices where he was the sports chief to Seoul South Korea for a two year reign to head the army a asian sports program. A lot has changed in two years. Quot the Wall a he said smiling broadly. Quot it was really a Shock. Hard to believe. In Korea we were fortunate enough to be about a Day ahead of the rest of the world. So we got the news live As it was happening. 1 had to Check the broadcasts twice to be  but a flood of East bloc refugees has made Browne a life miserable lately. With an average of More than 2,000 people flowing 1 in the a through opening Quot it sure did no Thi be Borders Elp the housing situation a lot a he said. He s still searching for a House but his Home a after a stint As a 7th at sports official and directing the v corps sports program a is in Europe. The status of the Wall Isnit the Only thing changing in Europe. In october Usa eur commander Gen. Crosbie e. Saint abolished Usa eur championships. Saint called for More emphasis to be placed on unit level sports programs. Before the announcement the command s sports championships were the showcase for usage urn a Best athletes. Brown was in Korea when the news reached him. Quot my initial reaction was that i was kind of shocked Quot he said. Then As information was streamlined out i began to get a better understanding about it. I think the problem at the beginning was that there was t a lot of information put  abolishing a Usa eur sponsored sports championship in t the end of the world he said. Quot you can go overboard on championships. That s probably what killed tackle football. You have to concentrate All of your efforts on this one thing. You Don t get to devote your time to the majority of soldiers. Quot we re Here to take care of All of the soldiers. They deserve it. We be redefined the company level sports program because that s where our emphasis needs to  before Brown Ever stepped off his 747, his coming was hailed As Quot the Best thing that could have happened to Usa eur sports a according to one v corps Community sports director. Glen Pietras the 21st Taa com sports director and a former colleague of Brown s at 7th at said Brown could be the band Aid for Usa eur sports. Quot if there a anything that can be done Jim Brown will be the one to do it. I Don t know if there s anything he can do  a sports chief who requested anonymity said Brown s coming was Quot six months too late. If he had been Here in october this would be a belter sports  Brown who left v corps in March 1988, laughs at the compliments. Quot i really appreciate everyone s Confidence but i la need their help Quot he said. Quot i have no soldiers no facilities. In order to do things we have to go Back to the team concept. If there is actually anything wrong then we. As a team need to take a look at it. Quot the problem As i Sec it is a Lack of Strong communication Quot he explained. Quot we need to get the word out to the different Levels of what is going on. Everyone needs to know what we re doing. There s no need to keep secrets. A Brown said that he has no wish list but is looking at the plausibility of some changes. Among some of his projects Are getting a centralized Usa eur marketing office to assist communities in attracting commercial sponsorship for their sports programs. Brown also Hopes to see the company level intramural program Prosper and get air Force participation in individual championships such As racquetball Tennis and track and Field. Quot a unified basketball championship for air Force and army teams for instance would be difficult because the air Force season ends in february while we end in april. We had talked about it before but had a Heck of a time coming up its King two Usa eur s Jim Brown. Feels no pressure w Ith  the reality of a reduced army in Europe and Quot redefining our Mission Here Quot has brow n faced w Ith a Lurry of decisions on the state of the program. Quot i be been mulling this Over but with a reduced Force this May have been the Best time to abolish Usa eur championships. We May have to stage army air Force championships. I think the army european championships Are the Way to get this thing started. If see army on Page 23