The Sabers boys high school basketball team played an exhibition game as a warm-up to an Evessa professional game Sunday, December 22, 2013, at the Sumiyoshi Sports Center. It was an exciting opportunity for the Sabers to play on a professional court in a large arena complete with pregame player introductions, Evessa cheerleaders, the Evessa mascot, and dozens of fans.

The Sabers opponent unexpectedly turned out to be a middle school youth team from Minoh, the Angels. The Sabers coach immediately realized that the game would be a lopsided mismatch, and captain Kai Stewart quickly came up with the good idea to pool all players from both teams together and then split them into two equal squads. After some quick uniform swapping, these A and B teams took the court to some polite clapping and some loud piped-in Evessa sound effects. 

The game was casual and fun and evenly matched until Stewart and former Sabers point guard Yujin Yamamoto each hit late 3-pointers to lead the A team to a narrow victory. Former Sabers post player Joel Terhune muscled his way to a few points in the paint. All players received 500-yen McDonald's gift cards and the losing B team players also received front row seats for the following Evessa game (along with the privilege of mopping the court during timeouts).

The Sabers high school boys and girls basketball teams hosted the Kyoto International University Academy (KIUA) Flames on Saturday, December 14, in front of a sell-out crowd in the SOIS arena. The teams played 4 games - boys varsity and junior varsity, and girls varsity and junior varsity - with the Sabers comfortably winning all 4 games. 

The Sabers boys JV team (pictured left), led by Taizo Heimer's 14 points, defeated the Flames JV 58-14. A 23-4 run in the second quarter sealed the deal early. A balanced scoring attack saw Leo Roberts score 12 points, Aki Shigeyama 10, Leslie Hsu 8, Tomoya Otsuka-Koh 8, and Rintaro Miyamoto 6. 

The Sabers boys varsity team handily defeated the KIUA varsity 63-23. Captains Shaw Iyama and Kai Stewart led the scoring with 15 and 14 points, respectively, in relatively few minutes. Taishi Miki added a career-high 12 points to the winning cause. 

Both the girls varsity and junior varsity earned well-deserved wins over much taller Flames teams.

Upcoming winter holiday games
December 20, 09:00: Sabers JV vs Kansai Christian School at SOIS
December 22, 11:00:  Sabers varsity exhibition game before Evessa professional game at Sumiyoshi Sports Center
January 4, 14:00: V and JV vs Canadian Academy at CA

On Wednesday, December 11, 2013, the Sabers boys varsity basketball team defeated long-time friendly rivals the Fossils, 48-44, on the Sabers court. The Sabers took a commanding 32-12 lead into halftime before the Fossils (pictured left), led by the dominating play of Coach Routh, outscored the varsity 16-0 in the 3rd quarter to close the gap to 4 points. The Fossils continued to outscore the Sabers in the 4th quarter, tying the game with a few minutes to play. The Sabers then put on their vaunted Aussie trap and were able to get some key steals late in the game to seal the victory.

History
Each December since 1995, the Sabers boys basketball varsity team has played an exhibition game against a collection of teachers, staff, parents, graduates, and other members of the greater SOIS community. This older group of players are infamously known as the Fossils. For about the first 10 years or so of this friendly rivalry, the Fossils, believe it or not, easily won all games. This Golden Age of Fossils basketball featured many young and skillful SOIS teachers such as Steve Bonnette (former band teacher), Brian Combes (former humanities teacher and DP coordinator), Josh Berg (former English teacher), Mark Pekin (former AD), Marvin Zulauf (former science teacher), Gary Rust (former business manager) and Jim Schell (former business manager), among many others. These early Fossils squads also included a young John Searle and a springy Stephen Lewis. Even Coach Heimer and Coach Ray used to be younger.

By about the year 2005, though, many Fossils greats had moved on and the rest got old. The Sabers varsity . notched its very first win over the Fossils around this time and has never looked back, dominating the old guys year to year. Wednesday's game was the tightest in recent memory. Heimer, Ray, Routh and Mecklem are not getting any younger and the Sabers are not getting any older, but that doesn't stop the Fossils from believing "maybe next year."

2013 Fossils: Mr. Routh, Mr. Mecklem, Mr. Ray, Mr. Heimer, Mr. Yamamoto (parent), Toshinori Matsuo (graduate), Naoto Takahashi (graduate), Makoto Honda (graduate), Takumi Honda (brother), and another Honda brother.