Cajigan to play NCAA Division I tennis

Chris Cajigan serves during the 2013 North Pacific Regional Championships held at the Pacific Islands Club-Saipan courts. (Oceania Tennis Photo)

Former CNMI junior tennis player Chris Cajigan has joined the growing list of Commonwealth athletes who are given the opportunities to compete in the collegiate ranks.

Cajigan is set to suit up for the University of Hawaii this fall and is now in Japan to prepare himself for a higher level of play.

“I am pretty excited with this opportunity to play in an NCAA Division I school and I know it’s going to be tough so I am really preparing myself, physically and mentally, for the upcoming season,” the 18-year-old said an interview with Saipan Tribune last weekend.

Cajigan, who will go to Hawaii early next month after his training sessions in Japan, is one of the two former CNMI junior players that will see action in collegiate tennis this school year. The other one is Mikayla Lopez, who is heading to New Mexico to don the colors of the New Mexico Military Institute. To date, there are four (including Cajigan and Lopez) former products of the Commonwealth’s tennis program that are competing in the collegiate level.

Thea Minor, after completing her two-year stint with NMMI in the National Junior College Athletics Association, has moved to NCAA Division II and will be debuting for Henderson State University in Arkansas. Over in Hawaii, lefty Amami Sakano, will be playing his sophomore year with UH-Hilo’s team.

CNMI Sports Hall of Famer Jeff Race, who coached Cajigan and company, couldn’t help but be proud of the latter’s latest achievement.

“I applaud Chris for getting this opportunity. Chris is a great kid and he is one of those players with a very outstanding work ethic. He will work his butts off to get better every game. He is a hard worker and I am sure he will do well at the University of Hawaii,” Race said in an interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Cajigan, who represented the CNMI in the North Pacific Regional Championships and Pacific Oceania Junior Championships for several years and in a series of tournaments in Australia in 2013, thanked Race for helping him improve his skills, saying that coaches like the latter make it easier for players to develop their game. Cajigan added that when he moved to Guam more than three years ago, he stopped playing for nearly six months because he could not find someone in the caliber of Race.

“Then I met coach Daniel Llarenas and he helped me get back to tennis. He and the people I am with in California also made it possible for me to get a scholarship at University of Hawaii,” said Cajigan, who moved to California on his junior year and spent his senior at a tennis academy (Erwin Tennis Training of tennis pro Michael Erwin).

“I competed in a lot of tournaments in California and those games really help me improve a lot to qualify to play for UH,” he said.

Cajigan is thankful that a player like him, who grew up and hone his skills in a small island in the Pacific, is given the opportunity to play in NCAA. He encouraged juniors players from both the CNMI and Guam to keep working hard on their game and dream of making it to the collegiate ranks.

“It does not matter whether it is NCAA or the junior college leagues as long as you will have the chance to continue playing the sport you love after you graduate,” Cajigan said.

“For beginners, just keep on playing and do not focus on the results. Enjoy the process of getting better—the results will come through working hard, training, and listening to your coaches,” he added.