Athlete of the Year feted next month

The Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association will hold its annual Athlete of the Year banquet on Feb. 17 at the Dai-Ichi Hotel Saipan Beach.

A total of 29 athletes from eight disciplines are nominated to the CNMI governing sports body’s yearly awards night, which fetes athletes in four main categories: Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year, Male Student Athlete of the Year, and Female Student Athlete of the Year.

The most nominations for 2004 come from the sports of basketball and athletics with seven apiece, followed by swimming with five, baseball and triathlon with three each, sailing and tennis with two, and volleyball with one.

Winners of the NMASA Athlete of the Month plums automatically get nominated to the year-end awards night.

Leading the nominees for basketball are Ol’Aces and Department of Public Safety I swingman Peter Camacho, Ol’Aces forward Jeremy Winkfield, Makos shooting guard Paul Magcalas, women’s national team mainstays Beverly Igitol and Chariss Ruluked, Saipan Sixers hotshot Manuel Ajoste, and San Antonio 69er center Bill Babauta. Igitol incidentally won the NMASA monthly awards twice.

The bets for athletics are Yoshi Suzuki, Tony Ichiuo, Darryl Roligat, Jiovannie Sablan, Raylyn Sapong, Bo Wang, and Winkfield, who has the distinction of being the only athlete to be nominated in two fields.

Saipan’s winningest sport, swimming, also gave a good account of itself in 2004 and its nominees are Nina Mosley, Dean Palacios, Juan Camacho, Amanda Johnson, and Jellian Majors. Mosley and Johnson were named athlete of month two times in 2004.

Baseball’s nominees are Saipan Major League batting champion Tony Celis of champion Miller Lite Brewers, and Little League heroes Tony Palacios and Nicolas San Nicolas.

Carolyn Calibong-Pierce, Sarah Johnson and newcomer Maxi Braig lead the cast of nominees for triathlon.

Representatives from tennis are youth netters Benjie Decena of Tinian and Kanani Ashraf, who recently moved to Hawaii. Sailing, meanwhile, has seasoned yachtsmen Tony Stearns and Janet McCullough. Stearns and McCullough also won in two different months. The lone nominee for volleyball is Pedro Ngotel.

The date and venue of the awards night was decided during NMASA’s regular monthly meeting held last Thursday at the conference room of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

The NMASA board also decided to postpone the voting for the athlete of year awards to next meeting set for Feb. 3 or earlier.

Aside from the athlete of the year awards, NMASA would also honor the coach of the year and induct its 2004 Sports Hall of Fame during the banquet.

Nominees for the hall of fame are baseball’s Francisco M. Palacios for administration, athletics’ Kurt Barnes for coaching, tennis’ Irene Alpet for female athlete (posthumous), and softball’s Tony Satur for male athlete.