{"id":222547,"date":"2016-03-08T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=222547"},"modified":"2016-03-08T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T20:00:15","slug":"flores-3-others-enshrined-to-cnmi-sports-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/flores-3-others-enshrined-to-cnmi-sports-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Flores, 3 others enshrined to CNMI Sports Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
Frank \u201cSonny Flores, left, and Tony C. Camacho chat after they were inducted to the CNMI Sports Hall of Fame during the 2015 NMSA Annual Sports Banquet last Saturday at the Hibiscus Hall of the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The elite CNMI Sports Hall of Fame family welcome four new members during the 2015 NMSA Annual Sports Banquet held last Saturday at the Hibiscus Hall of the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan.<\/p>\n

Respected basketball coach Frank \u201cSonny\u201d Flores, baseball\u2019s Tony C. Camacho, fast-pitch softball\u2019s Max Pangelinan, and athletics\u2019 Emy Quitugua made up the class of 2015 Hall of Famers as their contribution to CNMI sports were recognized in front of their former teammates, coaches, officials, and the island\u2019s young athletes.<\/p>\n

Flores called the shots for the CNMI\u2019s various local and national basketball teams for nearly three decades and he also played for Mt. Carmel School. His first coaching job was at the Marianas High School in 1983, while he started holding the same post for the CNMI Men\u2019s National Team in 1986 with his stint with the squad lasting for 14 years. He is best remembered for helping the CNMI win its only medal (silver) in the men\u2019s basketball during the 1994 Micronesian Games in Guam.<\/p>\n

Flores received his Hall of Fame trophy from fellow Hall of Famer Jeff Race during the awards presentation and was joined by his wife Annie in the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI owe half of this award to my wife, who was very understanding and supportive while I was busy coaching. I spent a lot of time away from home coaching teams and she did not complain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor coaches, try to teach and strengthen your players\u2019 basic fundamentals. Don\u2019t be fancy or help them make those NBA-like moves. If you help your players master the basics, you are doing the right thing,\u201d the veteran coach added when asked for advice to upcoming coaches.<\/p>\n

As for Camacho, who flew in from Oregon, to personally receive his award, following your coaches\u2019 instruction and dedication to practice are needed to become a good baseball player.<\/p>\n

Camacho played in Saipan Baseball League (formerly Saipan Major League) for 18 years and collected numerous individual awards, including Rookie of the Year, MVP, Coach of the Year, and Golden Glove. He also owned career records in hits, RBIs, and home runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to stand in front of my mentors in baseball and join them in the CNMI Sports Hall of Fame,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Northern Marianas Athletics\u2019 Elias Rangamar received Quitigua\u2019s award, as the latter was off-island, while Millerie Pangelinan got the trophy for her deceased husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very thankful for this great honor. My family is very happy because even though my husband is dead, the CNMI sports community still recognized his contribution to softball,\u201d Millerie said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The elite CNMI Sports Hall of Fame family welcome four new members during the 2015…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":222553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[310,26,1782,10156],"class_list":["post-222547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-cnmi","tag-hibiscus-hall","tag-max-pangelinan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222547","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}