Micro Games more than sports

With the recent push to bring the 2006 Micronesian Games to Saipan, many local leaders have spoken about the benefits of hosting athletes from across the region for the first time in 16 years. While the financial investment in local facilities will certainly aid the CNMI’s ability to compete long into the future, the time invested in 1989 allowed for the games to be played at all.

Flipping through the program from the 1990 games reveals youthful faces of yesterday’s players that have since transformed into the distinguished leaders of today. For one, James A. Ada went from a baseball player on the CNMI squad to becoming the Little League District Administrator and Mayoral candidate. It would be hard to dispute the positive effect that the world of sports can have upon an individual, but that is a point that leaders of the time knew 15 years ago.

In 1990, then Senate President Joseph S. Inos recognized it in his welcome letter to the participants of the games.

“Sports is a wonderful catalyst for bringing people together in peaceful and friendly competition, and between nations it creates respect and admiration and a feeling of brotherhood…Let it be from now on, that our sons ad daughters will come together often like this and meet in friendly competition and mutual respect, so that when the time comes for them to lead our island nations, the ties and feelings of togetherness between us will be everlasting.”

Inos was not alone in his foresight, as then House Speaker Pedro R. Deleon Guerrero saw the community level benefits. His support of the games was every part driven by the athletic aspect as it was by the social.

“By striving for perfection in these sporting events, we share our positive attributes of perseverance, dedication, determination, and hard work. These qualities not only make us better athletes, they also instill within us qualities of leadership and self-worth. These traits should glisten as desired goals before our young people as they witness them in action throughout these games,” he said.

As the deadline for the current government to make its commitment to the Micronesian Games Organizing Committee draws near, the words of former CNMI Governor Lorenzo I. Deleon Guerrero ring as true today as they did a generation ago.

“The Micronesian Games 1990 is a time not only to revive the 1969 MicrOlympics, but also a time to get together and foster the relationship we had in times past. What better way to spend a week on Saipan than competing against each other for the fun of it and also to enhance sportsmanship, goodwill, and friendship for all.”