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PSS plans 6 sports to start season
A Marianas High School player pulls up for a point-blank shot against a Tinian High School defender during their game in the Public School System Interscholastic 3×3 Basketball Tournament at the Koblerville Gymnasium early this year. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
Public School System Student Support Services Athletic Program director Nick Gross has initially scheduled six sports to kick off the interscholastic competition for the 2019-2020 school year.
In the elementary division, PSS is planning to start the season with the cross-country race and a co-ed soccer (for fourth to fifth graders) next month. The middle school division will also have the cross country events plus boys soccer and girls basketball. Cross country is included, too in the high school schedule along with girls soccer and co-ed golf, while stand-up paddling may be added on the list. PSS will be teaming up with Northern Marianas Athletics, Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, Mariana Islands Basketball Federation, Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association, Laolao Bay Golf & Resort, and Northern Marianas Paddle Sports Federation in facilitating the various competitions in the first half of the school year.
Gross, during the Northern Marianas Sports Association meeting last Thursday at the conference room of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium, said they will try to have more games or events this school year after some of the competitions in 2018 were either canceled or shortened due to Super Typhoon Yutu.
The first six sports are scheduled to continue in October, while weightlifting may also be introduced in the high school level in the same month.
From November to January 2020, PSS is planning to have ocean swim and co-ed volleyball for elementary; girls and boys fastpitch and girls volleyball for middle school; and ocean swim, girls basketball, boys soccer, and boys fastpitch for high school.
For February and March, PSS will switch to co-ed basketball for elementary, while middle school will have both the boys volleyball and girls volleyball. Outrigger canoe, boys basketball, and girls fastpitch will be featured in the high school competition.
In the last two months (April and May) of the athletics season, PSS will team up with NMA and McDonald’s for the All Schools Track and Field Championships for all three divisions. A co-ed softball for elementary, boys basketball in the middle school, and girls soccer and boys volleyball are also slated for April and May.
