Jerome Manzon is Roccball heavy hitter

San Jose’s Jerome Manzon, left, poses with Rocball/Roccball founder James Feger after one of the matches they officiated at the Marianas High School Gymnasium.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Marianas High School freshman Jerome Manzon was named the 2022 Micronesian Roccball Championship’s very first heavy hitter after leading San Jose to a win over Laly 4 last week at the MHS Gymnasium.

In addition to several 1-point court types scoring, the 14-year-old from Gualo Rai also scored four 2-point aces and four 3-point goals. Manzon is not only an up-and-coming premier Roccball player, as according to Roccball founder James Feger, he also helps with officiating in games when his team is not playing.

Manzon said it took him a while to get the hang of Roccball after excelling in volleyball most of his life.

“Nothing changed much on my perspective to playing Roccball. It is very similar to volleyball but very different at the same time. I noticed two main differences that volleyball and Roccball differ on. One is the five-touch rule and the serve receive two-touch rule. I had a bit of a confusion on this adjustment because it is a major change to what rule I usually play,” he said.

Manzon said another facet of Roccball that took a while to adjusting to was the point system.

“It’s very different from volleyball because you have all these new points from scoring an ace or a zunk to scoring a goal. I was quite surprised that I have excelled right away because the fundamentals of Roccball is different from volleyball. To me Roccball is more competitive. I feel very proud of myself to win such award. My years of hard work are finally paying off.”

In last week’s games, Team Nakama defeated team Redacted in an overtime set. In that game, Redacted players scored 13 2-point aces and two 2-point backcourt plays. The Nakama players scored three aces and two 3-point goals.  In the aforementioned game between San Jose and Laly 4 that Manzon starred, San Jose scored 10 2-point aces, a 2-point xunk, and four 3-point goals. A total of five teams are competing in the 2022 season.

Feger said Roccball is the sport that is known as a revolution on collocated courts. Formerly identified as Rocball,  Saipan’s own sport, it’s the first sport to include 3-point scoring, unrestricted hitting/kicking, and rally point scoring before the team net sports of basketball and volleyball adopted these creative forms of competition in the late 1980s and mid-1990s.

In international Roccball news, Rajender S. Ahlawat has been named president of the Roccball Amateur Federation of India for another five years. Under his leadership, Roccball associations have been established in all 22 states of India. Ahlawat is also the president of the Asian Roccball Confederation and will oversee the development of Roccball in Asia. The Roccball headquarters for Asia will be in Delhi, India.