MBT: Women’s time to shine is now

As the CNMI men’s team trains for the Micronesian Basketball Tournament in the air conditioned comfort of the Marianas High School Gymnasium, it is sad to see so many of the island’s most talented players absent from the practice.

The men who have made the commitment to the team were at the gym working through about two hours sweat and pre-tournament preparation on Wednesday, and they’ll take it to the next level when they face off with the UFO champs Visminda in a scrimmage.

The women’s team has been working just as hard under the watchful eye of coach Don Blondin. The squad is preparing to go to the MBT by practicing every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at the MHS facility for the last six weeks.

That isn’t to say that the women have just started working out together a month and a half ago, that’s just when they kicked it up a notch for the tournament.

“We’ve actually been practicing all year round on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When we were about three months out I changed the schedule to three days a week, and then to four days at the six-week mark. Attendance for the last two months was mandatory. If a player missed one practice we gave them a warning, but when they missed the second one we let them go,” said Blondin.

With the program only getting started relatively recently, the problem has also been trying to locate other women’s teams to practice against. As a seemingly unorthodox solution, Blondin has enlisted the aid of coach Joe Diaz and his Garapan Rollers of the Inter-Village Youth Basketball League.

“Joe and his boys have been great. Anytime they say that they’ll be there, they’ve been there. It’s good experience for the team, and both squads have a good time with it.”

The coach has high hopes for his team, but they extend far beyond the result of the tournament. He wants to instill upon his players the skills and values that only sports can give.

“I want the women to be able to learn the skills of the game and be able to pass them on. Right now, the women’s program is completely run by men. I want it to get to where the women are running it themselves,” said Blondin.

The women will be taking to the skies to Guam on Sunday morning, but it looks like the program will continue path upward for many years to come.