FUGITIVE COACH KICKED OUT

Team Devastated By Arrest Of Volunteer Who 'We All Loved'

He was a winner on the basketball court, loved by his players and respected
by his rival coaches.

For years Steve Tanaka volunteered for high school girls basketball teams,
coaching in Whistler, West Vancouver and, most recently, Langley.

So it came as a shock when it turned out that the man they knew as Steve
Tanaka was actually Steve Iwami, a fugitive wanted on a cocaine trafficking
conviction 30 years ago in Chicago.

Until his arrest at his Kitsilano home last week, Iwami was head coach of
the Brookswood Bobcats senior girls squad in Langley, a team which finished
second in the B.C. provincial championships last year.

"I was saddened, especially for the girls," said Brookswood principal Don
McBeath. "He was a good coach."

Chelsea McMullan, the daughter of former Langley councillor Heather
McMullan and captain of the Bobcats, was stunned.

"He was an incredible coach. You couldn't ask for a better coach than Mr.
Tanaka. It was devastating for the whole team to have to go through this.
We all loved him."

Iwami, 52, was convicted in July 1972 in U.S. District Court in Chicago of
trafficking in cocaine and sentenced to five years in a U.S. federal prison.

He remained free on bond while appealing but failed to show up and a
warrant was issued for his arrest.

Federal agents received information he was living in the Netherlands but
before they could move in, he had fled.

His father says that for at least the last 20 years he's been living in
B.C., working on fishing boats in the summer and doing odd jobs in the winter.

He has a 20-year-old daughter who attended school in Whistler, where her
mother lives.

U.S. Marshals deputy Randy Scott said that during a routine review of the
case last year, a deputy marshal in Las Vegas arrived at the home of
Iwami's relatives and discovered the family had just visited him in B.C.

Vancouver police Det. Les Yoe said he got a call from the U.S. Marshals
Jan. 2, saying Iwami was in Vancouver.

Yoe traced Iwami to the home that he shares with his daughter near the
Fourth and Alma area and arrested him last Thursday.

"He was very surprised and he was visibly upset," said Yoe.

Iwami was turned over to immigration officials, who fast-tracked him
through the system and issued a departure order, handing him across the
border to U.S. Customs the following day.

Iwami's father, Fred Iwami, of Las Vegas, said he spoke to his son on the
phone on Friday, the day he was whisked into Washington state.

"He didn't sound bitter, he didn't sound like he was all beaten up," said
Iwami, 81, a father of four.

The dad said about 15 years ago, he tried to persuade his son to turn
himself in and "let the courts decide" the case and even hired a lawyer.

But the lawyer decided it wasn't the best time to take any action, he said.

"I thought eventually it would come to something like this," he said.

Iwami's relatives are not planning to challenge the deportation.

"We just feel we don't have the money to fight this," said the dad.

Bruce Langford, the Simon Fraser University women's coach who knew Iwami
while he was coaching in high school, said his years of community service
ought to count for something.

"My immediate reaction is he's done an awful lot of good in the last while
and I'd certainly hate to see somebody pay too hard a penalty for something
that happened 30 years ago."

Record Checks

A criminal record check was ordered for Steve Tanaka on Jan. 11, less than
two weeks before his arrest for being Steve Iwami, a U.S. fugitive.

But Iwami never responded to the request before he was picked up by
Vancouver police, says Don McBeath, principal of Brookswood Secondary.

Iwami had never been checked while he was assistant coach on the Brookswood
Bobcats senior girls team in 2000-2001 and didn't get one when he became
head coach last November.

But when teachers withdrew from supervising extracurricular activities, the
school was flooded with volunteer coaches and checks for all volunteers
were ordered, said McBeath.

Teachers and staff must routinely undergo checks but guidelines for school
sports only recommend that volunteers also undergo checks.