Ada Gym to possibly open doors to sports next week

Good news for sports calling the Gilbert C. Ada home hit yesterday afternoon after the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Sports and Recreation Division indicated that the facility may possibly reopen its doors to sport activities next week.

According to division director Antonio Rogolifoi, only a couple of families remain sheltered at the gym, all of which are on the receiving end of assistance courtesy of the American Red Cross, and may possibly return home this week.

With that, Rogolifoi said the only other task remaining to be completed before activities at the facility normalize is cleanup.

“After the families return home, then all the remains to be done is sanitizing and cleaning of the gym,” he said. “Once that is done, then we can open the gym for sport activities to resume. We’re looking at possibly next week.”

Among the leagues that were engaged in activities when Supertyphoon Chaba interrupted last month were the Saipan Rotary Summer Youth Basketball League, the Inter-Restaurant Basketball League, and the 2004 UFO-San Miguel Cup.

Further, Rogolifoi said the Saipan Rotary league would resume with games next week. An official schedule of games was not available as of press time.

Meanwhile, IRBL official Jake Villanueva, after hearing of the reopening of the gym, said yesterday that he would meet with other league officials sometime soon with regards to scheduling games remaining to be played in the league.

Only five games, at the most, remains to be played before the 2004 champion is crowned.

After the completion of the regular season and first round of the playoffs, only four teams remain standing. Spearheading the cast is pennant champion Cappricciosa, which will face Jollibee in one half of the semifinals. The other bout features Country House battling Angel Wings.

While Cappricciosa earned a bye in the quarterfinals by claiming the best regular round finish, Jollibee earned it’s ticket after defeating El Segundo 76-63 on Aug. 19.

Country House, for its part, won via default after Keeraku failed to suit up enough cagers for their match, and the same went for Angel Wings after LSG Sky Chefs withdrew.

The winners of the two matches will then square off in a best-of-three championship series to determine the 2004 champion.

Like the IRBL, the UFO-San Miguel Cup is also in its semifinals stage. Official Raquel Miranda indicated that an official decision as to the resumption of play has yet to be made, but should be expected in the coming days.

FASA-CNC Inc. pounded SMF-Seabridge on Aug. 20 to fill the final semifinal slot and earned the right to play powerhouse Visminda-Country in the semis. FASA has a shot at not only advancing to the season finale, but also avenging their loss to Visminda, suffered just six days before beating SMF.

The other half of the semifinals feature RP Cabalen-Transamerica/ECC Comm. taking on SIP-Verizon. Cabalen won by default over NMBA on Aug. 14, while SIP defeated SMF the day after.