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[ BASEBALL ]



2 choose school
over pro baseball


By Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.com

Kainoa Obrey and Dane Awana have decided not to sign professional baseball contracts after being selected in Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft last week.

Obrey, picked in the 11th round by the Kansas City Royals, will return to Brigham Young for his third season with the Cougars. He heads to Massachusetts tomorrow to join the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod League.

Negotiations between the Royals and Obrey took place almost daily after the draft, but a deal couldn't be closed.

"I just felt it will be best that I go play summer ball, then go back to school because I'll be able to graduate in the spring," said Obrey, an Iolani alumnus who is majoring in sociology.

"The offer wasn't quite what I wanted. I really have a desire to finish school and no one has seen me play for over a year, just in workouts."

He only played 10 games for BYU this past spring due to a slightly herniated disk in his lower back, but rehabilitation has corrected that problem. The third baseman did leave the door ajar for another offer from the Royals.

"If I have a great summer in Cape Cod and something can be worked out, maybe," he said.

The Royals retain rights to Obrey until he attends his first class at BYU this fall.

Awana, a left-handed pitcher from Waianae High School, has decided not to sign with the Seattle Mariners, who picked him in the 32nd round last week.

The 6-foot, 170-pounder will enroll at Santa Ana (Calif.) Junior College this fall. He becomes a draft-and-follow selection for the Mariners, who can monitor his progress next spring and have up to one week before the 2003 draft to convince Awana to sign.

Two UH junior college recruits for next fall, left-hander Justin Azze and right-hander Nick Ponomarenko, are still waiting for the Montreal Expos to make an offer. They were selected in the 10th and 38th rounds, respectively.

"If I don't sign, then I think I'll move to Hawaii in July and join the Movers," said Ponomarenko.



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