{"id":351905,"date":"2021-09-17T06:04:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T20:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=351905"},"modified":"2021-09-17T06:04:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T20:04:18","slug":"robert-tamondong-bids-saipan-adieu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/robert-tamondong-bids-saipan-adieu\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Tamondong bids Saipan adieu"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Basketball
Basketball referee Robert Tamondong, center, is bidding the CNMI adieu today after making the islands his second home since 1991. (Mark Rabago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Basketball referee Robert Tamondong will leave the CNMI today after calling the islands his second home for 30 years.<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old from Pangasinan, Philippines first arrived in the Commonwealth in 1991 and originally worked for the Chamorro House Restaurant.<\/p>\n

Tamondong, a longtime accountant at Herman\u2019s Bakery, said he is leaving Saipan for greener pastures in neighboring Guam. <\/p>\n

Before donning the black and white stripes of basketball\u2019s arbiter, Tamondong actually was a sweet-shooting speedy point guard who won championships in a handful of leagues on island.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite team was Samahang Ilokano at Pangasinense. We had a great run before, especially when we got that rare three-peat. I really can\u2019t count how many championship I won as a player,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, his basketball career on island was cut short by a knee injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to become a referee after I ruptured my left knee cap during a game. I\u2019ve gone through rehab, hard training, and attempted to come back, but unfortunately, I couldn\u2019t get myself back to the fitness level I want. That\u2019s the time I decided to quit and become a referee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That was 2009 and Tamondong said through the years he has a lot of fond memories being the 11th, 12th, and sometimes even the 13th man on the basketball court as a referee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most memorable game I officiated was Micronesian Basketball Tournament that was held at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium maybe in 2013. I officiated the championship game between Guam and Palau. It was such a good experience and it gave me confidence to officiate at the next and higher level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tamondong also volunteered that being a referee is not an easy job and entails you to have thick skin as not everyone will agree with your calls. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t control the game, most likely fights will occur,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Being a top-level referee also needs a lot of training and a high level of physical fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must attend a seminar, do a lot of training, and pass the physical fitness from the national federation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from serving as a referee, Tamondong is also proud to have won accolades as a runner and is also an avid cyclist after retiring from his favorite sport of basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI changed my sports to running and cycling. When I first joined a half marathon I got third place in the 50-and-over category. The following year, I also finished third again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When asked what he\u2019ll miss most about life on Saipan, Tamondong said: \u201cWhat I will miss most are my friends here on Saipan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Basketball referee Robert Tamondong will leave the CNMI today after calling the islands his second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":351909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11328],"class_list":["post-351905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-robert-tamondong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351905","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=351905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}