Basketball late-entry push denied

The Commonwealth will be represented in various sports at the upcoming 2005 South Pacific Mini Games, but not in basketball.

The sport was actually dropped from the CNMI Mini Games preparations since last November, however, a late interest in forming squads on both the men’s and women’s corners was introduced to the Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association during its monthly meeting last Thursday.

Basketball Association of the Northern Mariana Islands president Mike Muna appealed to NMASA and stated that several members of the Legislature have committed to assisting basketball teams in coming up with the funds to cover the cost of taking part in the Games.

“Somebody up on [Capitol Hill] asked us why [we’re not competing], and we told them why, and they said ‘what if we could make your dream come true, would you guys in the last minute maybe gear up and get ready?’ I need this body to allow us to do that,” Muna told NMASA.

The push, however, was quickly turned down by several NMASA officers, who questioned several aspects of the late entry, including the selection process of the players, proper preparation for the competitive Games, regulations set by the body, as well as last Friday’s deadline for all delegations to submit accreditation forms.

“Coaches are supposed to be chosen a year ahead of time,” said Jeff Race of tennis. “All the teams here and athletes have to be training for such a period in advance and have a certain level of training.”

“You guys haven’t had tryouts. Without having tryouts and everything is due tomorrow [last Friday], I don’t even think that it would be feasible even if this body did by some reason vote to try it,” another member said.

With only two and a half months until the start of the Mini Games, Muna said there are several players who could make up the team, however, the selection process will not be through a try out.

“I think there’s light at the end of the tunnel for basketball, and if you guys would allow us, we would want to join you guys,” Muna said. “We rounded up some guys, we could pick and choose and get their photos in.”

Several in attendance, however, were not in favor of the “pick and choose method.”

“We’re about three months out to the Mini Games,” said wrestling representative Joe Ocampo. “If we send a team there that is ill-prepared against a team that trained months and months, they’re going to get slaughtered, and I’m in no position to have to sit there and cheer for a team that gets slaughtered because I know these guys are tired, they’re hurting, running ragged trying to prepare but not been able to.”

NMASA president Mike White, who also serves on the BANMI board, reiterated that the criteria set forth by the NMASA must be met by all delegations.

“We’ve required every sport to get their coach a year in advance,” he said. “[We’ve] required every sport every month to report on what they’ve done toward team selection, toward fundraising, toward team training. That’s the way we done it in the past.”

Muna said he accepts NMASA’s decision and will relay the message to BANMI.

“There’s nobody on this island that loves basketball as I do or who wants to see us do well in competition,” White said during an interview shortly after the meeting. “I played for the CNMI, I refereed, I coached…I love basketball and I want to see the CNMI do well, but putting a team together two months in advance is not recipe for success.”

The government has already committed to assisting the CNMI Delegation with $100,000.