{"id":342723,"date":"2021-04-22T06:06:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T20:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=342723"},"modified":"2021-04-22T06:06:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T20:06:57","slug":"my-goal-right-now-is-put-a-medal-on-your-chests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/my-goal-right-now-is-put-a-medal-on-your-chests\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My goal right now is put a medal on your chests\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
FIVB Level III certified coach and Oceania Sports Education master educator Mike Rabago talks to former and potential CNMI national volleyball players and current coaches during a two-hour clinic at the Agape Gymnasium along Middle Road last Friday. (Mark Rabago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Guam volleyball national coach Mike Rabago said this to former and potential CNMI national volleyball players and their coaches at the end of a what promises to be a series of coaching clinics at the Agape Gymnasium along Middle Road last Friday. <\/p>\n

The FIVB Level III certified coach and Oceania Sports Education master educator was on island to assist the Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association in getting its national team and grass roots program up and running again. NMIVA president Somia Quan said the coaching clinic conducted by Rabago is part of an FIVB National Team Coaching Development grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal right now is put a medal on your chests. I don\u2019t care what kind of color it is\u2026I want everyone to buy in\u2014the federation, the coaches, and the players\u2026 This is the future and you guys will be the one to build the youth program and it starts by being in shape. That\u2019s where the buy-in comes in like coming out on a Friday night [like this],\u201d Rabago told the over 25 participants of the volleyball clinic last Friday. <\/p>\n

He also impressed on the players and coaches that while the CNMI and Guam can continue to be rivals on the volleyball court, there\u2019s no reason why they can\u2019t cooperate to grow the sport outside it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to have an exchange between Guam and the CNMI. We don\u2019t want to [clash with] each other [anymore]. We want to be affiliated friends already. It\u2019s always nice to go here,\u201d said Rabago, adding that in the past he used to periodically fly up to Saipan to compete in many volleyball tournaments. <\/p>\n

The honor graduate of the U.S. Olympic Committee\u2019s International Coaching Enrichment Certification Program said his ultimate dream for volleyball in the Marianas is that the CNMI and Guam would follow the lead of the former French colonies in the Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The French-speaking island-nations] of Tahiti, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna they always play each other in inter-island meets so they know each other. So the Pacific Games to them is like a celebration or a close out of what they\u2019ve worked hard for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Quan said the coaching clinic last April 16 was just a way for Rabago to familiarize himself with the Commonwealth\u2019s men\u2019s national players as well as their coaches and see where their playing level and coaching capacity is and build a plan from there. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal for our partnership with Mike Rabago is to produce national team coaches for beach volleyball for the Pacific Mini Games and beach volleyball and indoor volleyball for the Micronesian Games, but if it also helps our other coaches at various volleyball development stages receive more knowledge and resources, even better!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Asked what\u2019s his impression on aspiring CNMI national volleyball players, Rabago said it\u2019s too early to pass judgment but he liked what he saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad that they\u2019re young. I\u2019m glad they have a court to come to. I haven\u2019t had a chance to really watch a 6-on-6 game so I don\u2019t know the total expectations and what they\u2019re caliber is really at. I\u2019m talking about something totally brand new and it\u2019s gonna either break them or make them better. I do see some players pick it up really quickly and I saw those still stuck in the traditional old-school way\u2026That\u2019s why I was telling them that do your homework, watch current games, and don\u2019t sit back and say \u2018I\u2019m the best and I\u2019m satisfied,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

NMIVA board member and former national team player Tyce Mister came away impressed after Rabago\u2019s volleyball clinic\/training session. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was excellent, fast-paced, organized\u2026 impressive practice\u2026 A debriefing after for coaches\/players to ask clarification questions would have been good. I realize we were pressed for time though,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tanapag Middle School volleyball coach Catherine Torculas-Woodruff said she benefitted a lot from the two-hour session with Rabago and plans to pass on the new volleyball knowledge she acquired to her players.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Rabago did a great job with ideas and tactics on how to do different drills. Workshops are very important to us coaches because we can get some ideas and bring them back to our school, implement them to our students,\u201d said the winning men\u2019s coach of the recently concluded 2021 Middle School Grass Volleyball League.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s champion coach of the women\u2019s side of the same league, Connie Camacho of Hopwood Middle School, said the clinic was an exciting and fun way to learn more about volleyball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI observed some techniques for teaching basic volleyball skills and I watched the national team play the speed ball game which I found fun\u2026I want to reiterate what coach Rabago mentioned that I myself believe in, which is there\u2019s always room for improvement and we must be a student of the game and never be satisfied. This is what separates you from the rest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guam volleyball national coach Mike Rabago said this to former and potential CNMI national volleyball…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":342725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342723","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}