Kwon: RBA also wants to showcase men’s teams

Marianas Dental Center will take on Socho 1 tomorrow as it hopes to bounce back from last Sunday’s loss to Blue Haus in the Inaugural NMI Rollers Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Koblerville Gymnasium. (Mark Rabago)

Aside from raising funds to purchase shooting machines, NMI Rollers Basketball Association is also holding the Inaugural NMI Rollers Men’s Basketball Tournament so that its older players who already graduated from its youth division can finally play.

“It really came from our men’s division. Cause we do have a men’s division and they’ve been practicing for about a year. We also have 19-and-under boys [team] and they can no longer play for our youth teams anymore. They got promoted and we had to open something for them. A lot of them are growing up and starting to work and moving to the men’s division. Their skill level is too high for our boys and they needed something to do as they’ve been practicing for so long and they need something to showcase their game,” said tournament commissioner Ethan Kwon.

He also admitted that more than 12 teams actually wanted to take part in the men’s tournament that started last week at the Koblerville Gymnasium.

“A lot more teams wanted to join actually. It started only through word of mouth that we were planning a men’s league and within those first two couple of months I already got calls from 6-8 teams wanting to join. Unfortunately we had to refuse some teams from coming in just because we don’t have too many games because we’re also planning to open a master’s tournament so we want to keep it short,” said Kwon.

When asked why RBA decided to organize a tournament instead of a full-blown basketball league, the tournament coordinator said it all boils down to logistics.

“It’s also a fundraising tournament as we want to buy shooting machines. A lot of stuff comes with running a league and it means a lot more fees, a lot more referees, more officials, and more costs,” he said.

The Inaugural NMI Rollers Men’s Basketball Tournament resumes tonight with a doubleheader. The first game at 6pm will be a certified barnburner with undefeated teams The Game and Blue Haus duking it out. The 7pm second game will then have Ol’Aces squaring off against Socho 2.

The Saturday four-game schedule will see Pacific Auto matching up with the San Antonio Sixers at 1pm. It will be followed by 2:30pm game between OG Rollers and Jacob’s Bakeshop & Barbecue. K2 Ballers will then suit up against GMS/IKKI (Bolabois) at 4pm, followed by the 7pm game between Marianas Dental Center and Socho 1.