‘Uninterrupted’ school sports season so far

Nick Gross, Public School System Student Support Services Athletic Program director, talks during the opening day of badminton competition last Saturday at the TSL Sports Complex. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

With things going back to normal, school sports is now back to the forefront of afterschool and weekend activities for school children, as the 2022-2023 interscholastic sports season is uninterrupted so far—a long awaited reprieve from the past couple of years of missed athletic opportunities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The interscholastic sports 2022-2023 season kicked off last September with girls high school volleyball, followed by all schools cross-country, co-ed elementary school and middle school soccer, and middle school girls basketball.

Nick Gross, Public School System Student Support Services Athletic Program director, told Saipan Tribune that so far, “it’s a fantastic season—recovering from the pandemic and getting back on track and getting our sports going. It’s just great to have a season that runs uninterrupted. 

The newly appointed ex-officio member of the Northern Marianas Sports Association added that “more importantly, I thank the entire CNMI—Rota, Tinian public schools, private schools—just a great big thank you for coming back to sport. Great to have it going on, great to have sports in so many different levels for every kid…and the support of the federations—NMSA and all of its federation memberships—is what makes us able to pull this stuff off. It really is that capacity that’s built in the community of sport, and I’m just so thankful.” 

The girls high school volleyball season just ended with Grace Christian Academy sweeping to its sixth championship; prior to that, Agape Christian School dominated the high school boys and both middle school cross country titles, Saipan International School swept the elementary school and high school cross country divisions; William S. Reyes Elementary School won the elementary school soccer championship; Tanapag Middle School won the middle school soccer championships; and Francisco M. Sablan Middle School won the middle school girls basketball championship.

The next slew of school sports will be the co-ed middle school badminton, girls high school basketball, boys high school soccer, and co-ed elementary school basketball.

Co-ed elementary soccer is under the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, the all schools cross country is under the Northern Marianas Athletics, the girls high school volleyball is under the Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association, and the co-ed middle school badminton is under the Northern Marianas Badminton Association.

With the bulk of sports being held in the sweltering heat of Marianas High School Gymnasium due to no air-conditioning yet post-Super Typhoon Yutu, Gross was asked when the gym is able to have a reprieve from the heat and he said, “the facilities themselves, we’re continuing to work through some FEMA recovery, as well as some community benefit projects that we have going on. It’s just the bureaucracy of things is slow. And we’re hopeful that we will have our air conditioners on sometime, quite possibly by Thanksgiving. And so that’ll give us a little bit of reprieve from the heat and the hot conditions in the gym. But it’s a constant struggle, it’s a difficult environment. With the storms we have had and the damage that all of our sporting facilities have taken, it’s a slow recovery.” 

He also said that they are also hopeful that they will be able to use the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium in November to host some of the school sports there so as to give MHS back some time in their home gym.

 “But that’s about all I can say about that stuff is we’re working through it and we’re very hopeful… Even though it’s hot and miserable, people keep coming and the kids keep coming. And so I think they’re kind of over it and it’s a resilient people throughout the CNMI to come out and continue putting themselves in these hot conditions, but it’s been really fun doing it,” he said.