{"id":355740,"date":"2021-11-12T06:01:37","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T20:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=355740"},"modified":"2021-11-12T06:01:37","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T20:01:37","slug":"onoc-recognizes-passion-of-sports-representatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/onoc-recognizes-passion-of-sports-representatives\/","title":{"rendered":"ONOC recognizes passion of sports representatives"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oceania
Oceania National Olympic Committees chief information technology officer Sitiveni Tawakevou said he likes the passion showed by leaders of the sports being offered in the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022. (MARK RABAGO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the CNMI has a lot of \u201chomework\u201d to do when it comes to getting ready for the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022, an Oceania National Olympic Committees official said he does see the passion from representatives of the nine sports offered in the quadrennial event set from June 17 to 25, 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of homework. That\u2019s the initial assessment on the first week and that\u2019s from the national federations side. But what\u2019s really driving and motivating me is to see how inspired the national federations are to have this Mini Games. They\u2019re turning up to meetings after hours,\u201d said ONOC chief information technology officer Sitiveni Tawakevou.<\/p>\n

Case in point was a meeting they held last Nov. 1 where sports managers of the national federations attended despite a local superstition that people who don\u2019t visit their loved ones\u2019 graves on All Saints\u2019 Day risk being visited by the spirits of their dear departed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday (Nov. 1) was the most important day to some people\u2019s lives. They might be visited by their loved ones who\u2019ve moved on. But they turned up to the meeting. For us, it\u2019s assuring this demonstration of commitment that\u2019s important. They\u2019ve shown commitment to their own sport and commitment to their community,\u201d said Tawakevou.<\/p>\n

Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association executive director Carli Sablan admitted she actually had second thoughts about attending the All Saints\u2019 Day meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a meeting yesterday for all sports managers\u2014of all days when everyone was in the cemetery. So, I said if I get a visit from my dad tonight it\u2019s because all of these guys agreed to meet today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tawakevou added now that he sees enthusiasm from the local federations, the next order of business is to sustain their motivation. And that\u2019s where putting into place frameworks that could help them succeed come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe homework we need to do is to actively establish links with international federations. They already have but we now need to move into a second level of interaction so that we could get our draws approved, our schedules approved, will get a lot of things approved. And then the next level of approval is to approve venues. That this venue is marked properly and marked to standards. So that\u2019s the last level of approval for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ONOC official also said he\u2019s quite impressed with the CNMI\u2019s internet connectivity following a meeting with IT&E and Docomo Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very happy that all the network is very new and is fiber and is world standard. The speed is what some other countries don\u2019t enjoy. Also continuity with redundancy and backup so the [Mini] Games coverage will continue and ensures connectivity will go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives of the national federations that took part in the Nov. 1 meeting acknowledged that the ball is in their court now with regards to preparing for next year\u2019s Mini Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt basically rehashed what NMSA and the Mini Games organizing committee had national federations do a few months back. But now it seems like the national federations need to push and accomplish a few critical items soon. For va\u2019a, it\u2019s pretty much the event schedule and assigning people to critical posts like the sports manager, etc. It also includes our procurement list of what we will need to run the va\u2019a races. We have started on this months ago but much work still need to be done,\u201d said Northern Marianas National Paddle Sports Federation president Justin Andrew.<\/p>\n

Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association board member Lydia Tan said she took a lot of pointers from the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s informative in preparation for the Pacific Mini Games for tennis. I\u2019ve learned what are the roles of sports manager and guidelines for the role. It\u2019s a lot to do and with the support of the international federation and guidance, we\u2019ll get there. It\u2019s a little overwhelming at the moment!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Northern Marianas Islands Volleyball Association president Somia Qua seconded what Tan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSports managers play a huge role in coordination and liaising with various organizations (Oceania federation, national federations, organizing committee, broadcasting, etc… even government agencies). They ensure that the sport and Games run smoothly. There\u2019s a lot of work to do as the sports manager. The meeting yesterday was just the first. They will be calling weekly meetings to ensure that all federations are moving with their planning and organizing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the CNMI has a lot of \u201chomework\u201d to do when it comes to getting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":355742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8863],"class_list":["post-355740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-onoc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355740","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=355740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}