The 2007 Pacific Rim Bowl will be held on July 27 in Ashland, Ore., pitting the Japan All-Stars and the Ashland High School football team. The Japan All-Star team is made up of 45 seniors-to-be from Kansai, with more than 200 players trying out for the team from over 50 high schools. The team is slated to practice at Walter A. Phillips Field from Monday through Thursday. "The Pacific Rim Bowl is the only Pan-Asian football series known in the United States," said AHS coach Charlie Hall, whose mother is Japanese. The first Pacific Rim Bowl was played in 1988 in Osaka. Hall said the series was established as the "combined dream" of Akira Furukawa, the chairman of the Kansai Collegiate League, and ex-Ashland head coach and athletic director Jin Nagel. The series began after Southern Oregon University (then known as Southern Oregon State College) and Kwansei Gakuin University of Osaka competed on the gridiron in the 1980s. Every four years, AHS travels to Japan for the Pacific Rim Bowl and every two years it hosts the Japan All-Stars. This year, 22 Ashland families will host the Japan All-Stars during their one week in Oregon. Planned activities also include a two-day visit to the Bay Area in California and a trip to the San Francisco 49ers' training camp in Santa Clara. AHS holds a 5-4 lead in the series, but has lost three straight to the Japan All-Stars.
