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Better showing from junior players
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Posted on Feb 27 2020
Helen Kim returns to Serin Chung during their girls U14 singles title match in the 2020 White Coconut Tennis Classic held this month at the American Memorial Park tennis courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
Long-time CNMI coach Jeff Race sees the islands’ junior players bouncing back this season after a challenging year in the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in 2019.
“It was a great year for our senior team, but not for our junior squad. We have been getting the No. 1 and 2 positions in the Pacific in the last five or six years, but last year we were No. 5,” said Race, who was honored along with the rest of the members and officials of the CNMI National Senior Tennis Team last week at the Northern Marianas Sports Association Annual Banquet as they swept the major awards in the event.
In the POJC, the CNMI missed getting even a single title in the competition—a first in the last six years of dominating the regional tournament and after winning the coveted Nations Cup for two straight seasons (2017 and 2018). Last year, the Commonwealth settled for two runner-up honors, courtesy of Jimin Woo’s second place finish in the boys U16 singles event and his and Sean Lee’s No. 2 performance in the doubles contest of the same age group.
“After the challenging 2019, we added some serious changes in our program,” the CNMI Sports Hall of Famer said.
Race was talking about the training and actual games the junior players are underdoing. He explained that in their previous training regimen, players at this time of the year would have gone through 100 sets in practice and competitions. When changes were made, Race said junior players have played 1,200 sets.
“At first I don’t know how the players and even their parents would react to it. However, everyone buy into it and I could say that I’ve never seen as much enthusiasm into our program as I’ve witnessed this season. This will bolster our program and I am confident we will have a better performance in the North Pacific Regional Championships and in the POJC this season,” Race said.
CNMI’s junior players will compete in two more local events before participating in off-island tournaments mid this year.
