‘First fully completed school year of sports programming’

CNMI Public School System Aathletics Program director Nick Gross thanks everyone for a fantastic 2022-2023 school sports season after the last championship game of the school year last May 13 at the Marianas High School Gymnasium.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The CNMI Public School System has just concluded a full schedule of the interscholastic sports 2022-2023 season and according to PSS Athletics Program director Nick Gross during the last championship game of the season, that since PSS has had the athletics program, it’s the first fully completed school year of sports programming.

The season started last September with girls high school volleyball won by Grace Christian Academy; next was middle school girls basketball as Francisco M. Sablan Middle School took home the championship; followed by all schools cross country split between Agape Christian School and Saipan International School; middle school boys took to the pitch with Tanapag Middle School bagging first place; then it was middle school co-ed badminton with SIS defending their title; then it was the co-ed elementary school soccer with William S. Reyes Elementary School claiming the championships; co-ed elementary school hoops was next with Koblerville Elementary School defending their title; and 2022 wrapped up with boys high school soccer as MHS claimed the title.

After the December holiday break, the sports season kicked off again in mid January with GCA claiming the MS girls volleyball championship; followed by co-ed high school badminton which MHS took the gold in; then co-ed va’a, which Saipan Southern High School won first in the boys and co-ed and MHS won first in the girls division; MHS won the girls high school basketball season; middle school girls went at it in soccer with SIS taking home the title; then co-ed elementary grass volleyball was won by KobES; the boys middle school volleyball kicked off and was won by SIS; in the boys high school basketball season, MHS took home first place; the boys high school volleyball season kicked off with MHS going for the repeat; all schools athletics kicked off in the elementary (SIS and KobES), middle school (DMS), and high school (ACS); then, the high school girls took to the pitch and MHS grabbed first place; and finally, the 2022-2023 sports season ended just this month with boys middle school basketball as FMS took home the gold.

With the bulk of games played at the MHS Gymnasium, the airconditioning was finally restored just last November after years of playing in the sweltering heat. The Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium was also fully functional as of early this year, allowing some games to be played there too.

The only sports program that did not kick off this school year was the girls high school fastpitch softball, but will hopefully find and work with partners to hopefully get it online next school year.

Gross said, “We’re really just ecstatic on the end of PSS for having been able to work with our partners and establish every program and the amount of Tinian and Rota exposure that we’ve had. We’re just really pleased with the private schools and the public schools; it’s been a fantastic year for everybody kind of coming back to sport.”

As for what the next school year has in store, he said, “I think that we’ve established a baseline this year that we’re really excited moving into next school year knowing that I think we’ve really just changed kind of the way everybody’s taken on this stuff. I just don’t think it’s going to be as big a struggle to get the kids and the schools’ support moving forward. It’s going to be a great opportunity next year again to really pump up the jam if we can.”

He said that PSS has one more year of “stable” funding under the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. “School year ’23-’24 is going to be pivotal due to economic stresses and different things.”

But even with that, he said “We’re still going to be here, we’re still going to offer the program—we just may have to think a little bit outside of the box and make sure that we can continue doing what we’re doing, make sure that Tinian and Rota are always an integral part of the work that we’re doing. We want to make sure that we never scale back. We always want to think about growing bigger and having not necessarily more sports to offer, but more opportunities per sport for more of our student body to take part in.”

With successfully pulling off the full 2022-2023 sports season, Gross said “The success of athletic programs is having the Public School System’s full support and the leadership of PSS all the way down to our principals at that level have done an incredible job of stepping up and so we thank them.” 

“But most importantly, the core in the heart of what we do is the students coming out and participating, the coaches willing to do it—they’re certainly not compensated very well for their time, but these experiences that these kids get, I think at the root of it, this is how we create healthy communities. It’s making sure that kids throughout the islands have the opportunity to participate in play, learn the rules, and the ins and outs, learn how to win and lose with dignity. But these experiences are what creates a healthy community because in the end, all of these experiences, you know, bring everybody to the plate to enjoy the game. But when they’re 18 and graduating from the Public School System and the private schools, ideally they’re not walking away from sport. They’re either given back as coaches and as officials and all the different layers that it takes to really produce these programs. And so I think that it’s a staple to a healthy community, seeing that you have grassroots programs such as PSS athletic programs.” 

“And from there, we work with the Northern Marianas Sports Association and all of its membership. We’re always looking to expand the sports that we offer, but we need to know that those sports that want to come online have the capacity to support themselves as we can do a lot to to help guide, but we can’t we can’t be the ones that are coaching it and reffing it… so in the end, all of the sponsors that helped us out throughout the year and the federations—there’s a bunch there to mention, but thank you to everybody for making it a fantastic and successful year,” he said.