The CNMI will be losing a talent in basketball in Manuel Ajoste Jr., who will be leaving for Texas today to join the military.<\/p>\n
Ajoste plays for the Southern Sonics in the ongoing 2008 Saipan Rotary Club Youth Basketball League and was the top scorer for the team in their first two wins in the 18-and-under caging.<\/p>\n
Omar Ajoste, Manuel\u2019s brother and the Sonics\u2019 assistant coach said the prolific scorer\u2019s departure will be a big loss to the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will leave a big hole on the team. But I am sure his teammates will understand. As much as he loves basketball, he has no choice at this time, but to leave and look for a better future for him and his family,\u201d Omar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife is getting difficult here,\u201d the older Ajoste said.<\/p>\n
Sonics head coach Jesse Tudela could not be reached to comment on Manuel\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n
But Omar said Tudela was already informed of Manuel\u2019s plans after the younger Ajoste graduated from Saipan Southern High School, three months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wished my brother good luck. He said the team will miss one of the best young shooting guards on the island,\u201d Omar said.<\/p>\n
Manuel played for two games for the Sonics in the ongoing Rotary caging.<\/p>\n
He scored 19 points in the Sonics\u2019 early rematch with the CNMI Junior Nationals during the opening of the youth caging and lifted his team to a 71-64 victory.<\/p>\n
In his last game for the Sonics, Manuel was again the team\u2019s top scorer, firing 17 markers in their 81-49 rout of the G-Stars.<\/p>\n
Early this year, Ajoste played for the Manta Rays in the MISO High School Basketball League and was a member of the All-Conference Team, joining teammate Mike Eclevia, MHS\u2019s Jericho Cruz, Kagman\u2019s Vince Teregeyo, and Mt. Carmel\u2019s Kristian Aquino.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old cager helped the Rays regain the high school championship they lost to the MHS Dolphins during the 2006-2007 season. The Rays beat the Dolphins in the finals of the 2007-2008 season, 111-99, with Ajoste firing 18 points in the title game.<\/p>\n
Manuel was also part of the Sonics team which claimed the runnerup trophy in last year\u2019s Micronesian Basketball Tournament. The Sonics stunned the CNMI Junior Nationals in the semis, before bowing to host Guam in the title match.<\/p>\n
In the Bud Cup, Manuel played against much older foes and helped the Sonics reached the semifinal round of one of the toughest leagues on the island.<\/p>\n
Manuel, who will be with the U.S. Air Force, is the second Sonics player to leave the team this year. The first one was Lerio Pagarao, who went back to the Philippines. Jon Lim is expected to follow Manuel in the mainland to also join the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI will be losing a talent in basketball in Manuel Ajoste Jr., who will be leaving for Texas today to join the military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}