FUGITIVE NABBED AFTER 30 YEARS

Brookswood Secondary's top-ranked senior girls basketball team is in
shock after its coach was arrested and revealed to be a cocaine
trafficker wanted in the United States.

A Brookswood Bobcats coach who was going under an assumed name has
been arrested after living on the lam for 30 years.

Steve Tanaka, head coach of Brookswood Secondary School's senior girls
basketball team, the Bobcats, is actually Steven Iwami.

It was revealed this week that he had been convicted of conspiring to
sell cocaine in Chicago in 1972. After being sentenced to five years
in jail, he fled the United States.

For the past two years, Tanaka, who lives in Vancouver, has been
coaching basketball teams at Brookswood.

News of his arrest came as a shock to the staff and players.

Former Bobcats team captain Ann DeReus, who quit the team two weeks
ago for personal reasons, said the news left her and other students
stunned.

"Everybody is unbelievably shocked," said the Grade 12 student. "No
one had any idea."

DeReus could only comment on Steve Tanaka, the coach, and not the man
currently in custody.

"He was a fantastic man who gave up all of his time and energy for
us," she said. "He was a great guy and a great coach."

Bobcat Grade 12 forward Laura van den Boogaard said the team spent a
weekend at Tanaka's home in Whistler last year, where the
then-assistant coach cooked them a salmon dinner. She said Tanaka
would buy the girls slurpees after games.

"We feel like we've lost something," van den Boogaard said. "We all
loved Mr. Tanaka so much. He was incredible. He was an awesome guy,
and we're upset to lose him, but we're just going to have to carry
on."

Ironically, the school had started a new policy requiring that
criminal record checks be done on all its volunteers on Jan. 9 on this
year.

Tanaka's check had not come back by the time of his arrest.

Tanaka began volunteering as an assistant coach at Brookswood last
year, while his friend Winfred Liem was head coach. The school did not
have a criminal record check done at the time because Tanaka was
working under the supervision of a teacher.

When Liem stepped down this year, Tanaka took over as head coach in
November.

In the new year, Brookswood decided that all volunteers working in the
school should be subject to criminal record checks, and Tanaka and all
others helping out were asked to undergo the background search.

"It seemed like a good idea," said Brookswood principal Don
McBeath.

The school learned of Tanaka's arrest late last week.

"The girls are saddened by this," McBeath said. "He's a good coach and
they like him. He was respected by the girls and their families."

"I worry about the girls," he added. "They put their heart and soul
into it (basketball)."

He said while the girls deal with the shock of Tanaka's arrest, they
also have to keep playing.

"A lot of people are in a position to help," McBeath said, noting that
the senior girls won their game on Saturday with interim coach Scott
Reeve.

Teacher Scott Stevenson will take over as coach.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Randy School said Tanaka had been arrested in
1971, when he was 21, after selling a pound of cocaine to an
undercover police officer.

After he fled, police got a tip in 1974 that Tanaka was in the
Netherlands. Chicago police tried to track him in Europe for several
years but were unsuccessful.

The case was forgotten until Scott was assigned to the case five years
ago. He asked another marshal, Melinda Kormos, to visit Tanaka's
parents, who live in Las Vegas. Every couple of months the marshal
would visit them, and last April, she appeared to catch them off guard
as they were returning from a trip.

It turned out they had been in B.C., and the U.S. marshals told
Vancouver police and the RCMP that Tanaka may be in their area.

Vancouver police detective Les Yeo called on informants and determined
that Tanaka was living in Kitsilano. Police staked out his house and
he was arrested peacefully on Thursday, Jan. 24.

He was arrested on an immigration warrant and ordered deported for
entering the country illegally. Tanaka was handed over to U.S.
authorities on Friday.

Scott said Tanaka will not be charged with fleeing the country because
the statue of limitations on that offence has expired, and suspected
Tanaka would not serve the full five years on the drug charge.