Call for nat’l tennis training facility

The NMI National Tennis Team swept all events in the 10th Micronesian Games in the Marshall Islands for a total of seven gold medals, plus two bronze, and with that, the team’s head coach and Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association president Jeff Race hopes it results in the building of a national tennis training facility.

The tennis team racked up gold in all events—men’s and women’s team event; men’s (Robbie Schorr) and women’s singles (Isabel Heras); men’s doubles (Schorr and Colin Ramsey) and women’s doubles (Heras and Hoo Wang); and the mixed doubles (Heras and Schorr); while the bronze medals came in the women’s singles (Irin Chung), and mixed doubles (Wang and Ramsey).

Race hopes this jumpstarts the CNMI government into getting a site to build a national tennis training facility for their athletes. “If this performance helps us toward that, then I’ll be really happy with that,” he said.

As for the tennis teams’ gold rush and performance in the games, he said, “I’m really proud of them.”

“They came through in every clutch situation. Not only did we win all the gold, we won two bronzes too and I think Irin Chung really had a great performance in the women’s singles; Hoo Wang came through with Colin Ramsey to win the bronze in the mixed doubles, so I was really happy some of these young players can win individual medals,” he said.

He then said, “I think this was really an educational experience for these kids to come into this. They’re sort of exposed to having to take their game to a new level—which is some of the best ways to improve their game.”

The Marshall Islands’ unpredictable weather caused many delays and with the short time frame of just four days for tennis competitions, almost each player had to play five to six back-to-back games in a day. Some days, they played well into the night.

With that hectic schedule, Race said, “It was super difficult physically for our players—especially for our Top 2 men and our Top 2 women because I think they played six matches in a day. I’d estimate they were playing tennis for eight hours.”

He then emphasized, “I hope they never let this happen again. Don’t ever make the mistake of scheduling the games in just a short time. It was just really, really insane.”

The finals had to be played in short sets due to a two-hour long rain delay and Race feared they wouldn’t have been able to finish up the tournament, but in the end, he said, “we got it in, and we won. I couldn’t be happier. I think it’s a fantastic achievement for our young players.”

He added that their win in the team competition on the first day of Games really did set the tone for NMI in their eventual sweep of the tournament. However, he did say team Pohnpei gave them a run for their money at times. “None of it was really easy. It was all super close. Pohnpei has made a strong performance in these Games and they’re a team to be reckoned with,” he said.

He did say that Guam didn’t bring in all their best players, and if they did, it would’ve been tougher for the NMI team. But he said, “I don’t care! We won all the gold medals—I don’t care.”