{"id":216367,"date":"2015-12-10T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T20:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=216367"},"modified":"2015-12-10T06:00:44","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T20:00:44","slug":"girls-softball-tournament-to-use-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/girls-softball-tournament-to-use-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls softball tournament to use draft"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Softball players from the Marianas Interscholastic Sports Organization are being targeted by a fast-pitch league that is being formed in the hopes of reviving interest in the sport. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The planned inaugural girls softball tournament will be using a draft format similar to the ones used in professional sports leagues in the United States to evenly spread out the players.<\/p>\n

This was what Northern Marianas Sports Association vice president Kurt Barnes, softball player Pina Magofna, and CNMI Sports Hall of Famer Tony Satur had agreed on during a recent meeting at the Laolao Bay Golf & Resort.<\/p>\n

They are trying to form a chore group with the goal of reviving fast-pitch softball especially at the grassroots level.<\/p>\n

Satur said a players draft would make sure that no team would dominate the games and to avoid lopsided results.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is best to all the players and the teams that will be formed to evenly distribute those who already know how to play fast-pitch softball,\u201d said Satur, who was inducted to the CNMI Sports Hall of Fame for his exploits in playing softball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players will also have seedings. In that way, there won\u2019t be only two teams that will dominate every game,\u201d added Magofna, who also plays the sport.<\/p>\n

Barnes also suggested that participating teams would first draw lots to know which will pick first and so forth.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, if there are five teams they will pick 1-2-3-4-5 in that order and it will go in reverse where the last team to pick will get a chance to choose again. So they will get two players,\u201d said Barnes.<\/p>\n

It would also be the same for the next league or tournament where the last team in the standings, after the season, will be the first to choose from a players\u2019 pool.<\/p>\n

Satur also suggested that a one- or two-week clinic should also be held to all interested youth players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am willing to facilitate the clinic. It is best to all interested players to undergo a clinic whether they already know how to play or if they are a beginner,\u201d added Satur.<\/p>\n

Barnes said they would invite more people to attend another meeting in January. \u201cWe want to also toss the idea to them. It is better to get more people involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

NMSA is hoping softball together with table tennis and weightlifting be revived. Table tennis and weightlifting has been a source of medals for the CNMI in the Micronesian Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The planned inaugural girls softball tournament will be using a draft format similar to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1900,1162,67,7344],"class_list":["post-216367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-kurt-barnes","tag-nmsa","tag-people","tag-pina-magofna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216367","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=216367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}