Samoa vets make up badminton training pool

In this 2019 file photo, CNMI and Samoa badminton players pose for a photo before their match at the Multipurpose Gymnasium of the Faleata Sports Complex during the opening day of the XVI Pacific Games in Apia. (Contributed Photo)

With the NMI 2022 Pacific Mini Games less than a year away, the Northern Marianas Badminton Association said the national team that finished fifth place in the team event of the last Pacific Games will form the bulk of the training pool for next year’s quadrennial event.

The CNMI National Badminton Team to the XVI Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa was made up of Andreau Galvez, Nate Guerrero, Ezekiel and Daniel Macario, Janelle and Jordan Pangilinan, and Nicole Malasarte.

“Players who represented the CNMI to the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa are now part of our national team training pool. They are practicing regularly and are helping NMBA look for other players that we could add to the pool,” said NMBA president Merlie Tolentino.

In the recent TanHoldings Badminton Team Tournament, Tolentino said NMBA made a conscious effort to spread players on the national pool to the five teams.

“[We did so] for mentoring and for them to challenge players with different skill levels in actual matches. They will have a more rigorous training sessions this summer. We would not announce the members of the CNMI National Team to the Mini Games until early next year,” she added.

Galvez, Guerrero, Malasarte, the Macario brothers, and the Pangilinan siblings beat Samoa, 4-1, and Kiribati, 3-2, in the team event of the 2019 Apia Pacific Games to finish with a 2-4 record. That was good enough for fifth place, which was an accomplishment in itself considering that players didn’t benefit from any real coaching besides YouTube and players didn’t had enough training time as the islands were still recovering from Super Typhoon Yutu’s wrath a year before in 2018.

Aside from the TanHoldings Badminton Team Tournament, NMBA is also looking at hosting other competitions moving forward, especially now that the CNMI has transitioned to Level Green—the safest—under the COVD-19 Task Force’s five-​color Community Vulnerability risk scale.

“Future competitions will help NMBA prepare for hosting the Pacific Mini Games in 2022. We will treat every competition as a dry-run for Mini Games to prepare our players, technical officials, and even volunteers,” said Tolentino.

The NMBA also added that while they didn’t hold any tournaments during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the CNMI, they remained active in other ways.

“Although NMBA did not hold a tournament after the pandemic struck, NMBA managed to safely re-open our facility at the TSL Sports Complex in the third quarter of 2020 and welcome back our players for regular practices and scrimmages. We also did Shuttle Time sessions as part of our outreach programs with schools. However, you can’t gauge the improvement of players by just playing for fun, you will need tournaments and this is just the start of a series of competitions that we will be hosting to help our members raise their level of play,” added Tolentino.