{"id":372251,"date":"2022-07-13T06:06:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T20:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=372251"},"modified":"2022-07-13T06:06:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T20:06:41","slug":"chef-de-mission-plays-connect-the-dots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/chef-de-mission-plays-connect-the-dots\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef de mission plays connect the dots"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 chef de mission Bob Coldeen delivers his speech during the Team NMI Celebration Dinner last Thursday at Kensington Resort. (OFFICE OF THE CNMI GOVERNOR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bob Coldeen, the chef de mission of the CNMI delegation in the recent Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022, said the islands\u2019 successful hosting of the quadrennial event wouldn\u2019t have happened if the former Trust Territory capital didn\u2019t host the Micronesian Olympics in 1969 and subsequently the Micronesian Games 37 years later in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201c[In] 1973 I played some pickup baseball in Chuuk where I heard about their incredible gold medal game against Palau in 1969 at the Micro Olympics here.<\/p>\n

Later on Saipan, I asked Tan Ko Palacios if he saw that game. He said he was the scorekeeper. I said, \u2018wow.\u2019 He said, \u2018I still have the scoresheets.\u2019 I said, \u2018wow.\u2019 With that, I could write a story. And as I was doing that I learned all about the Micro Olympics, how its significance went beyond fun and games, how they were used to connect peoples and cultures, an excuse to get together,\u201d he said during Thursday\u2019s Team NMI Celebration Dinner last Thursday at Kensington Resort.<\/p>\n

The former sports broadcaster said the Micronesian Olympics was supposed to be every four years, but apathy and the changing political dynamics of the region resulted in the sporting event being shelved until the CNMI revived it as the Micronesian Games in 1990 on Saipan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And you bet, Coldeen had a hand in the Micronesian Olympics\/Micronesian Games making a comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026in 1988 I wrote a letter to Gov. Pete P. Tenorio, recommending he revive the Micro Olympics in 1989 for its 20th year anniversary.\u00a0 He agreed but we couldn\u2019t get it done by then. That\u2019s why the Micronesian Games resumed on Saipan in 1990. Due to trademark infringement, the word Olympics was changed to Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

While everyone already knows that the CNMI actually balked at hosting the 2022 Mini Games after being hit by back-to-back super typhoons, Coldeen disclosed that the 2006 Micro Games on Saipan also almost suffered the same fate after then governor Benigno R. Fitial wanted to cancel it due to austerity measures being implemented at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feared that would be their death warrant and would be the end of them forever. That required some tough closed-door meetings. To his everlasting credit, governor Fitial reversed his decision and the Games went on successfully\u2026 That was significant because it gave the [Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association] confidence to ask the Pacific Games Council to host the Mini Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

NMASA is the precursor of the Northern Marianas Sports Association.<\/p>\n

Coldeen then went on to congratulate all the local athletes that took part in the Mini Games that saw the CNMI medal in all sporting events and finish third in the medal standings with 16 gold medals, 13 silver, and nine bronze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI salute Team NMI and all nine federations for their excellence. All nine prepared their athletes well, with medals to show for it. All nine had their venues in tip-top shape, with nothing but praises from our visitors to show for it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he reserved his highest praise to the CNMI National Baseball Team, who for Coldeen was the Games\u2019 best team and its star pitcher, Josh Jones, its best athlete.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the competition, each chef de mission, was asked to submit nominations for special awards to be selected by the Pacific Games Council. For the record, I nominated Joshua Jones as top male athlete and NMI Baseball as best team\u2026Most people wanted to go see the best. Most people went to see baseball. Therefore, baseball was the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coldeen ended his message by presenting golf\u2019s Zhimin Jin with the Outstanding Female Junior Athlete of Pacific Mini Games 2022 trophy. The 15-year-old from Marianas High School won the women\u2019s gold of the Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Coldeen, the chef de mission of the CNMI delegation in the recent Northern Marianas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":372256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372251","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\/372251","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\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}