Tyce Mister is King of the Court

Tyce Mister won 11 out of 12 games en route to winning the men’s division of the King and Queen of the Court tryouts held last Saturday at the sand courts of the Crowne Plaza Resort. (MARK RABAGO)

Veteran spiker Tyce Mister beat up on players that were young enough to be his sons—two actually were his—to reign supreme in the men’s division of the King and Queen of the Court Tournament held by the Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association last Saturday at the sand courts of the Crowne Plaza Resort.

The competition served as the second tryout NMIVA hosted to select players for the CNMI National Beach Volleyball Team for next year’s Pacific Mini Games the CNMI will be hosting to the first time.

Mister, who won a beach volleyball gold in the 2006 Saipan Micronesian Games along with Chris Nelson, won 11 of 12 games and finished with the highest total with 182 points.

The 54-year-old Gold’s Gym general manager started things out by partnering with Steven Balakrishna and the duo stopped his 16-year-old son, Dylan, and Jacoby Winkfield, 15-3. He and En Yang Pang then scored a 15-10 win against his 18-year-old son, Blake, and Winkfield.

Playing with John Moises Justo, Mister fashioned out a 15-9 victory over Jermaine Salas and Pang. He and William Arriola then won over Blake and Marc Angelo Danga, 15-3.

Mister’s fifth win came against Salas and Winkfield, 15-6, playing alongside Jakey Deleon Guerrero. He then followed that up with a hard-earned 16-14 nipping of Blake and Pang while playing with Danga before losing his only game, 13-15, against Balakrishna and Pang while suiting up with M.J. De Belen.

He bounced back after that loss with a 15-2 shellacking of Dylan and De Belen while partnering with Louis Cataluna. Mister then teamed up with Dylan and the Misters beat Balakrishna and Justo, 15-11. It was Blake’s turn to play with his father and they barely defeated Deleon Guerrero and Danga, 16-14.

Mister finally joined forces with former Marianas High School colleague Winkfield and the duo outplayed Dylan and Salas, 17-15, before he concluded his successful stint in the tryout with a 15-7 victory over sons Dylan and Blake playing with Salas.

The King of the Court champion thanked NMIVA for staging the tryout despite of the recent community outbreak of COVID-19.

“A big shout out to all of the volunteers. It’s great to see our younger players getting out on the court. It’s time to knock this salty dog off the throne,” he said, while adding that he’s “very proud of our boys” Blake and Dylan.

Mister has represented the CNMI in a total of five Pacific Games—1999 in Guam, 2003 in Fiji, 2007 in Samoa, 2011 in New Caledonia, and 2019 again in Samoa.

Balakrishna finished second to Mister in the King of the Court tourney with 179 points, while Deleon Guerrero closed out the Top 3 with 169 points.

Meanwhile, Queen of the Court Kathleen Winkfield thanked NMIVA for the successful staging of the tryout last Saturday.

“Thank you NMIVA for running these tournaments and giving these opportunities for the community to represent Saipan! It was great to see and play with motivated individuals out together competing in a sport that we all love. Thank you for the sportsmanship both on and off the court from everyone and I hope to continue seeing more of this as the tryouts and training continues in preparation for the Pacific Mini Games,” she said.

What made Winkfield’s win in the tryout more amazing was it came a couple of weeks after she and Jacoby welcomed another child.