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Who’s next: Anicia Santos
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Posted on Dec 31 2008
The CNMI sports community is used to reading tennis players, swimmers, and sprinters making waves off-island. How about a volleyball player holding her ground in a competitive league and tournaments in the mainland? That doesn’t ring a bell, isn’t it? Especially, for a player who left Saipan 10 years ago.
Her name is Anicia Santos, born to Roque Santos and Dr. Christine Ebert-Santos, who decided to move their family to the mainland to help Carlos, one of Anicia’s four siblings, pursue his football dreams.
From being a small kid, Anicia grew up to be a 6-foot-1 stopper who played in the 2008 Junior Olympics Girls Championships and became a member of the California Polytechnic State University (San Luis, Obispo) Women’s Volleyball Team.
The Mustangs are in the NCAA Division I and is ranked No. 14 in the 2008 season.
The Junior Olympics was held in July last year at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas with 9,500 athletes from 788 teams in the U.S. in various age groups (from 14 to 18-and-above) competing.
Before joining the U.S. Olympics, Santos suited up for the U.S. Youth National Team and played in various tournaments in southeastern Europe in 2006.
Members of the youth team are trained to someday be part of the U.S. National Team, which competes in Olympics.
If Santos one day makes it to the U.S. National Team and the U.S. spikers qualify for the Olympics, she will be the first CNMI athlete to become an Olympian.
The CNMI is not a member of the Olympic family thus it can not send athletes directly to the quadrennial meet. A CNMI athlete can only play in the Olympics if he tries out for a U.S. team and get selected.
The Commonwealth’s membership to the Olympic family is considered a long shot due to its political union with the U.S.
