JAPAN
Phoebe Shoda sets the ball.

Phoebe Shoda is one of two setters Kinnick will utilize this season. (Cynthia Abel/Special to Stripes)

SASEBO, Japan – McKinzy Best refuses to lament about what’s gone.

So what if the E.J. King no longer has the two finest girls players in Cobras tennis history, his daughters Moa and Miu, who have graduated? “

I start with what I have,” the elder Best said just as a practice was getting under way. “I don’t look behind me. And I look to make them better today than they were yesterday.”

It’s not like the Cobras’ tennis cupboard is entirely bare. The players who were listed as three, four and five in the lineup simply move up.

Read more at stripes.com.

The best stories from the Pacific, in your inbox

Sign up for our weekly newsletter of articles from Japan, Korea, Guam, and Okinawa with travel tips, restaurant reviews, recipes, community and event news, and more.

Sign Up Now