Typhoon to bring storm surge to Saipan

There’s just a few hour and a wake-up before Saipan rises to tomorrow morning’s start of the Commonwealth Football League, and board members, team representatives, and players met on Tuesday night at the local VFW Post on Beach Road to discuss some of the final details that remain in the balance.

After months of training and inter-team scrimmages, the monsters of the Marianas will return to the 100-yard battlefield at the CPA Airport Field this Saturday, and while the players are ready to trade tackles, organizers are just as serious about the paperwork.

One of the sticking points remains how the league will transport all of the field markers, yard markers, and chains across the channel to Tinian, as well as figuring out how they will keep score without the presence of a time clock and a scoreboard following brutal visits from their namesakes.

While there is precious little time to come up with a solution, the organizers knew that the challenges to playing in Tinian would not be easy, and are currently speaking with representatives from businesses and airlines in an effort to get the necessary equipment across the water.

There won’t be the same dire issues for tomorrow’s match up when the Typhoon opens the fifth season of sacks and cracks against the Barbarians at 10am, but many onlookers will never know the amount of the time and effort organizers have spent to make the season a success.

Following the opener, Shell Lightning and the Express Electronics Eagles will complete the doubleheader in the afternoon match-up at 1pm. The board of directors agreed that the Tinian team will play in the early game during all doubleheader dates to allow for them to make the ferry trip, as they will the following week when they try to shock the Lightning on Saturday, Oct. 1. The green and black-clad Eagles play the Barbarians in the late game at 1pm, but then soar to their first away game in Tinian under the lights at 7pm against the Typhoon on Saturday, Oct. 8. The following week the Lightning and Barbarians awake from their seven-day rest for their contest on Saturday, Oct. 15, at 1pm on Saipan.

The doubleheader schedule continues on Saturday, Oct. 22 when the Tinian plays a home game in name only when they host the Barbarians on the CPA Airport Field at 10am before the Lightning and the Eagles battle at 1pm.

All four teams return to Saipan on Saturday, Oct. 29, as the Eagles get to host the Typhoon at 10am followed by the Barbarians and the Lightning at 1pm, but the CFL will break for a bye on Election Day on Saturday, Nov. 5.

A week after casting their ballots, the Lightning will cast off toward Tinian to engage the Typhoon on Saturday, Nov. 12, at 1pm, and the Barbarians battle the Eagles in the season finale on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 10am.

The playoffs are slated for Saturday, Nov. 26, when the second and third place finishers vie for a chance with the top dog at 10am, and the new king of the CFL will be crowned on Saturday, Dec. 3, following the 10am championship.