MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI -- Seven teams competed against each other during the Perry Cup Soccer Tournament 2017 at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, March 17-18, 2017.
International and Department of Defense high school teams from all over Japan made up the two-day, 12-game tournament.
To determine the champion, the tournament was broken down into two stages and two groups. The winners of the first stage went on to play against each other in the Maroon Group for three rounds during the second stage. The losers of the first stage went on the play against each other in the Gold Group during the second stage.
“The winner of last year’s Perry Cup, Canadian Academy, automatically gets a spot in the Maroon Group,” said Mark Lange, the head coach for the M.C. Perry soccer team. “The winners of the Maroon group and the Gold Group will receive a trophy for winning in their group.”
M.C. Perry High School from MCAS Iwakuni, Yokota High School from Yokota Air Force Base, and Noda Gakuen High School from Yamaguchi City went on to play in the Maroon Group with Canadian Academy.
Noda Gakuen won first place in the Maroon Group. Yokota won second place followed by Canadian Academy in third and M.C. Perry in fourth.
The teams that went on to play in the Gold Group were Edgren High School from Misawa Air Force Base in Misawa, Marist Brothers International School from Kobe and E.J. King High School from Sasebo.
Marist Brothers won first place in the Gold Group. Edgren won second place followed by E.J. King in third place.
All of the teams agreed this was a great tournament overall to see where their strengths and weaknesses fall when competing with each other.
“Our main goal being here is to get better with each game so we can perform well for the Far East Tournament and the DoD Finals coming up soon,” said Bill Schofield, a coach for the Edgren soccer team. “This is an extra tournament we thought was great and want to be back for next year.”