{"id":272126,"date":"2018-03-19T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=272126"},"modified":"2018-03-19T06:00:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T20:00:38","slug":"agape-learning-values-lessons-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/agape-learning-values-lessons-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Agape: Learning values, lessons through sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-272126 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/agape-learning-values-lessons-sports\/agapepix1\/'>Agapepix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-272188'>\n\t\t\t\tAn Agape Christian School runner celebrates his 10K finish during the 2018 Saipan Marathon. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/agape-learning-values-lessons-sports\/agapepix2\/'>Agapepix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-272189'>\n\t\t\t\tAgape Christian School students pose with their medals after the awards ceremony for the 2018 Saipan Marathon held last March 10 at the Fiesta Resort &amp; Spa Saipa beachside. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Agape Christian School encouraged its students to engage in spots, not to win medals, but more than that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want our students to learn values and lessons by playing sports,\u201d said Agape principal Jimeian Pang, who assisted their over than 50 students that participated in this month\u2019s Saipan Marathon.<\/p>\n<p>Five Agape students won in their respective age groups in the 50K, full marathon, half marathon, 10K events of the March 10 competition, while others had respectable finishes in their division.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinning is good, but learning things after winning or losing are better. We\u2019re happy to see out students win in competition, but we are more than happy to see them become a better person, a better student,\u201d said Pang when asked why Agape almost always participates in sports events, particularly in running competitions on Saipan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrough sports, they learn teamwork, gain confidence, become humble, and get stronger,\u201d Pang said.<\/p>\n<p>Pang explained that most of Agape students are from off-island and when they first came to Saipan, they were very timid and wanted to be left alone. However, as the days go by and they are exposed to sports and other activities, they are improving, learning to work together with their classmates and are eager to perform better both in academics and sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to believe me when I say our students seldom get sick because they are too active in sports. Even though we have P.E. classes twice a week, we feel they are not enough, so we encourage are students to join sports whether it\u2019s within the school or in the community,\u201d the Agape principal said.<\/p>\n<p>William Chen was among the Agape students who won in the half marathon race this month\u2014a feat he achieved despite having difficulties throughout the race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a bit injured and it was really hard to do the race. But, when I looked at my shirt, I am wearing Agape uniform, so I don\u2019t want to quit for my school. I am proud to represent the school and in every sport we join, our school reminds us not to quit, but instead work hard,\u201d said Chen, who was the top finisher in the boys 15 to 19 age group\u2019s half marathon.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Wang did the longest race\u2014the 50K\u2014and he prevailed in the 15 to 19 division, too, thanks to the support of his fellow students and Agape officials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would not be able to do it if not for the help of my teammates and our school officials during the training and the race itself,\u201d the 17-year-old Wang said<\/p>\n<p>Majority of Agape students who raced in this year\u2019s Saipan Marathon placed in the middle of the pack and some were at the last batch of finishers, but Pang said the students are moving on and do not mind if they missed winning a medal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn sports, you do not always win. You fall down, but get up and move on to try your best to perform better the next time. Our students learn these lesson after joining sports competitions and they can also apply these in life once they are out of our school and ready to start another journey,\u201d Pang said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Agape Christian School encouraged its students to engage in spots, not to win medals, but&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":272188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[20454,20455,3134,20456],"class_list":["post-272126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-agape-learning","tag-five-agape","tag-saipan-marathon","tag-william-chen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272126","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=272126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}