Granada Pioneer, Vol. II, No. 11

              Page 6_____________PIONEER__________December  4,   1943
“BELOW  THE  BELT”
   That "politics" can enter into sports is somewhat
discouraging to nisei sportsmen, who feel that athletics
is one domain that could be kept free of undue pressure.
Positions on any scholastic team is in most cases dis-
posed on individual merits and an athlete with excep-
tional ability is almost certain to make the team.  Of
course, allowances should be made during war-time, be-
cause, conditions are of necessity different.
   All this was brought to discussion from an incident
cited in a letter by Joe Ide, former PIONEER editor,
which referred to certain Mickey Nakamura, who was the
unfortunate victim.  He  participated in two school
grid games and blossomed into “the talk of the town.”
Suddenly the village big-wig’s son football ambition
got side-tracked, so the aforesaid big-wig “beefed”
more than his allotted “ration points”-good-bye Mickey.
   We  feel with Mickey the    tears     his  heart must have
shed when he   turned   in his   uniform.
   But two  factor  stands   out.
   First,   he was  accepted by his team-mates as one of
the gang.
   Second,   the  townspeople   saw Mickey as just “an or-
dinary kid"  and  likeable as   "any other American boy.”
   If we, Nisei, can gain a bit of prideful satisfac-
tion from that then Mickey deserves our thanks.
   Text of Joe Ide's letter:
   a tremendous booster to
the nisei "cause" was one
mickey nakamura from the
poston  center,     he     is     19
and is going to school part 
time at the local high school
. . .well, anyway during
the football season just
passed, he played for the
school team and developed
into a first-rate star. . .
the students were nuts a-
bout him and enthusiasm
ran high. .  .he played in
two games and made a good
account of himself.   He
cavorted in the backfield
when on offense and was
utilized as an end when, on
defense, he was definite-
ly the talk of the town…
all went well for awhile,
for the team,for the school,
for the students, but sud-
denly a big-wig in the
town noticed that his son
wasn't playing as often, as
he the son did before mic-
key came. . .he beefed
loud and long and the school
principal fearing repercus-
sions of some kind talked
to the manager of the ho-
tel, who talked to mickey,
and mickey turned in his
uniform.    just an incident
but i thought i would men-
tion it. one thing, the
fact that mickey was on
the team lining up with 10
caucasians proved that the
kids weren't too "big" to
take him in as a fellow 
athlete. . .and briefly, 
it proved to the townspeople 
who watched the games that 
mickey was  an  ordinary kid    
with a natural love of com-
petition-just like any
other American boy.  That 
was a tally for us despite
his being asked not to play.
High school interclass
cage "parade" pees on every
HI  SPORTS====
   High    school  intramural
games     for     Tuesday night.
First game 7:00 o’clock.
Mercuries  vs   Easy Aces   (A)
Rockets      vs  Zombies   (A)
Golden    Avalanche    vs  Top-
   pers   (AA)
   Tuesday's   results :
Calbrs  d  Mercs,   17-11   (A)
E Aces  d  Rockts,   37-23   (A)
G Aval  d  20 Cen, 29-7 (AA)
	---
   High school interclass
Cage “parade” goes on every
Wednesday, Thursday and 
Friday, with 48 quintets
participating, stated Coach
Hoke.  These teams with
myriad of fancy names are
separated in 6 PE classes
and play-offs will be held
later among the winners.
   Tom Yokoi and John Kashi-
wabara are in charge of this
interclass competition.
YOORES  WIN  38-35
---continued  from page 5-
   SUMMARY:
YOORES  38        	VS	FUKUYAMAS 35
Kash’b’ra 16	f	Nishimura 0
Menda  5	f	Kawamura 4
Ito 6		c	  Yokoi       8
Watanabe  2	g	Aoki          9
Yamagiwa  7	g	Yoshida     8
   SUBS:  Yoores-Y. Nishi-
hara 2, Yamazumi, J. Oka-
be, B. Nishihara.
   Fukus-G.  Okabe, Sanui 6.
Johnnie
         Presents
                  By tsuruta
GYM  SCORING  RECORD
   It’s only the first   week
of real casaba playing at
the new high school gym but
we've already seen some
fancy shooting. Many re-
cords will be set as the
season progresses and as
usual, individual races will
be most interesting to fol-
low. At present we see
two pace setters looming
well  ahead   of  others.
   First on the list we see
Tosh Okamura of the Golden
Avalanche in the intramural
"AA" soaring up high with
18 points garnered Tuesday
night against the 20th Cen-
tury. Okamura led the In-
dian varsity scorers last
season and it seems that
he's continuing where he left
off for another "hot" season.
   And the other point lead-
er is none other then much
publicized Tule transferee
Johnny Kashiwabara of the
Yoores.    Peerless Johnny
came thru with 16 points in
his Amache sport debut in
t he Yoore -Fukuyama  debacle.
Needless to say "Kash" cer-
tainly pleased the local
femme fans with his smooth,
boyish court cavorting. And
we are forcasting to the fan-
ettes that much greater
things are expected from,
him, according to informa-
tion  in  our   “file."
   Last season, if we re-
member correctly, Double-A
Rambler's one-and-only Tosh
Shimizu dumped in 26 digits
at the Granada Hi gym to
set all-time record there
for Amacheans. And it was
no fluke because in the
first contest of the sea-
son, irrespressible Shimi-
zu sizzled the netting at
Holly for amazing 29 points,
which still stands unmarred.
Shimizu is out on a season-
al leave but may return be-
fore the casaba season ends.
Nobody knows when but Fu-
kuyama opponents won't be
mad if he stayed away for
the  entire   season.
   We're wondering if Oka-
mura or Kashiwabara will
topple Shimizu’s record .
Maybe some unknown basket-
eer may do it. Who knows?
Oh well,   we'll  see!!