Happy holidays indeed for week’s finest

Some athletes and teams in the CNMI will have a merry Christmas, others will not.

Members of Saipan Southern High School’s junior varsity basketball are among those who have a reason to celebrate the holiday season after defending their title in the 2008-2009 Marianas Interscholastic Sports Organization Basketball League.

Kagman High School’s Ayuyus will have a not so merry Christmas after they were beaten by the Rays in the MISO caging finals, 84-63.

The Rays won last season’s junior varsity division title after thrashing the Ayuyus, 115-102.

Joining the Rays in merrymaking this season were MMA fighters Kelvin ‘The Big Hit’ Fitial and Tara “The Tarantula” Namauleg, volleyball players Bruce Berline and Melody Matson, CNMI junior tennis players Thea Minor, Rafael Jones, Christian Miller, and Benjie Decena, and Department of Community and Cultural Affairs’s men’s softball team.

Fitial starred in Trench Warz IX: The Annihilation with a first round win over Reuben “The Booben” Quinata of Guam in the main event.

Namauleg made history when she defeated Jenipy “So-High La” Sambile in the CNMI’s first ever MMA female fight in Trench Warz IX: The Annihilation.

The pair of Berline and Matson downed the tandem of Mili Saiki and Russ Quinn in the championship match in the 2nd Annual Reverse Co-ed Grass Volleyball Tournament, 24-22.

Minor, Jones, and Miller are in New Zealand competing in tournaments. Two tournaments were completed with Minor winning two doubles crown and making two finals appearances in singles division, while Jones and Miller also made good account of themselves in New Zealand prevailing in a couple of matches.

The three CNMI netters were part of the ITF Pacific Oceania Team and are challenging players from Australia, New Zealand, and other island-nations in Oceania and the Pacific.

Decena was not included on the team, but he did well in a local tournament sweeping the men’s 4.0 singles and doubles events in the 2008 Tinian Tennis Tournament at the Tinian Youth Center in San Jose.

The 2008 Inter Government/Business Softball League played its last game of the year Friday and defending champion DCCA became the only team in the 20-squad field to go undefeated as the league takes a holiday break.

DCCA is unbeaten in eight games following its 38-13 demolition of Commonwealth Ports Authority, which won its first six games before bowing to DCCA.

Others members of the sports community, especially those who are frequent visitors of the Oleai Sports Complex and its track and field facility received a Christmas gift as early as May when construction of the grandstand started.

The Oleai Sports Complex grandstand and pathways were inaugurated Friday with Gov. Benigno R. Fitial leading the inauguration rites.

While the new facility is pleasing to the eye of residents and tourists alike, an old one—the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium—needs a major facelift especially since the CNMI is hosting the Oceania Basketball Tournament next year.

FIBA Oceania secretary general Steve Smith in an e-mail to Saipan Tribune said the Ada Gym is below international standards and the expectations of FIBA Oceania as far as hosting the Oceania caging is concerned.

CNMI as host will have until the end of this month to assure FIBA Oceania that a program is in place to address the problem or the Commonwealth might lose its hosting rights.

Triathlete Eli Torgeson will not be spending Christmas in the CNMI after leaving Saipan for good Saturday.

A frequent winner of running, biking, and triathlon events here, Torgeson returned to New Mexico after a 16-month stay in the Commonwealth.

After several postponements, the 2008-2009 BANMI-Budweiser Cup Men’s Islandwide Basketball League finally kicked off Thursday night with the Ol’Aces winning the opening game after an 81-76 triumph over the Docomo Hoopaholics.