NMITA sends 19 players to NPRC

The CNMI National Junior Tennis Team for the 2023 Northern Pacific Regional Championships poses at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport before leaving for Guam yesterday morning. (JUSAM JAE)

The Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association has sent 19 players to the North Pacific Regional Championships that starts today, April 24, until April 29 in Guam.

The 2023 NMI National Junior Tennis Team is made up of boys 16U’s June Yu, Henry Choi, and Simon Tang, girls 16U’s Hoo Wang, Irin Chung, and Savita Sikkel, boys 14U’s Nason Wessel, Yutaka Kadokura, Siwoo Lee, and Taher Shakir, girls 14U’s Anne Lee, Hannah Chae, and Lina Tsukagoshi, boys 12U’s Ryan Choi, Michael Jeon, and Daniel Kang, and girls 12U’s Stella Choi, Vivian Chung, and Jenna Pascual.

“Congratulations to these young athletes and good luck as they play in the NPRC. They will compete to qualify for the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships, which will be played in Fiji in June,” said NMITA president and CNMI national tennis coach Jeff Race.

Ian Chae was part of the original 20-player contingent but had to pull out on account of injury.

“He broke his arm a week ago and isn’t with us. He really trained hard and was so excited,” said Race.

The many time Northern Marianas Sports Association Coach of the Year awardee and NMSA Fall of Fame inductee admitted the NPRC being moved to an earlier date definitely complicated things. 

“We just have a short time to prepare for the regional championships. That competition has moved from the middle of June to the end of April. So it’s almost two months earlier. That just allowed us about six weeks to prepare. But we’re very lucky because you know, these kids are very dedicated during the nine months that I barely worked with them at all,” he said. 

Race said it’s a testament to the CNMI junior players that they trained among themselves when Race’s Aces Tennis Academy wasn’t running since June of last year.

“We had some free lessons on Saturdays and during the Christmas holidays and I was working with different kids every day but you know, they really just got out there and practiced themselves. They’re a very dedicated bunch without any coach there to tell them what to do,” he said.

On the selection process on who ultimately gets to go to the NPRC, Race said it was very methodical and is culled from the results of NMITA’s calendar of events throughout the season.

“The vast majority of the criteria is basically just what you’re ranking here is. Some kids who might have a lower ranking, because maybe they’re doing so well in the upper level. They’re not No. 1 on the 14s but they might be No. 1, 2, or 3 in the 16 in but their 14 ranking may not be that high. We have to take all circumstances. We try to just keep it as objective as possible. So that’s why we made our ranking system where you have to go through it and it takes time to go through and do the rankings after every tournament. But that’s just a way to make things fair for parents.”

Race added that the lack of formal training because of the suspension of his Aces Tennis Academy coupled with the new schedule threw a curve ball in their preparations for the NPRC.

“I mean last year we did so well. And we’ll just have to see how we do this year and you know, like I said we haven’t had formal training for nine months. So we’re trying to cram bad habits that were unfortunately developed during that time. That’s one thing that some of the kids who are practicing every day, they sort of get a bad habit and then it gets reinforced over that much time. So kind of trying to work out a few kinks and have everybody focus on a lot of fundamentals like footwork and making sure that we are serving so that we’re not giving away a lot of points for free like on double faults.”

Hopefully, he added the past several weeks after his academy returned would’ve been enough to get his players up to speed. 

“[We trained for] just the basics like focusing on just controlling the point, not trying to get crazy and trying to have winners but keep the other player running the ball around the court.”

Race thanked Tan Holdings and Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan for their support as well as tournament sponsors White-Coconut Scanning and Bridge Capital LLC.