Northern Youth Basketball Association president Joe Diaz has been in a lot of cardiac games and championship matches before, but all of them don\u2019t compare to his latest challenge\u2014delivering a speech in front of hundreds of people during this afternoon\u2019s opening ceremony for the inaugural NYBA Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m all excited about the tournament but one thing I don\u2019t like and have always been nervous of doing is having to deliver speeches,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this [NYBA] is all about the kids. We are starting this program for them and if I need to make and deliver a speech then that\u2019s just what I have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three-division, weeklong tournament kicks off today with an opening ceremony scheduled at 5:30pm at the Garapan Basketball Court. No less than governor-elect Benigno R. Fitial will be the guest of honor in the event, which would include a parade of teams and several dance and special numbers.<\/p>\n
Aside from the House Speaker, also invited in the opening ceremony are Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela, who won a second term in the Nov. 5 general elections, Rep. Ramon Tebuteb, Rep. Clyde Norita, and Rep. Justo Quitugua and representatives from NYBA sponsors DFS Saipan, Marianas Health Services, Department of Public Health, Community Guidance Center.<\/p>\n
Special numbers would also be rendered by Garapan Rollers and Matansa Sparks players, who would perform Cha-Cha Flight, a dance-like drill for basketball.<\/p>\n
The 2005 NYBA Tournament consists of three divisions: Division I featuring youths from nine to 12 years of age; Division II for kids 13 to 15 years of age; and Division III for cagers 16 to 19 years of age.<\/p>\n
Teams participating in Division I are Capitol Hill, Matansa Sparks, Sugar Kings Shooting Stars, and Garapan Rollers. Making up Division II are Bwii-Bwiis, Garapan Rollers I and II, Capitol Hill, and Matansa Sparks, while teams in Division II include Bwii-Bwiis, Garapan Rollers I, II, and III, Capitol Hill, and Matansa Sparks I and II.<\/p>\n
Divisions I and III see action tonight with Capitol Hill taking on Matansa Sparks starting at 7pm in the 12-and-under division and Bwii-Bwiis squaring off against Garapan Rollers III starting at 8:30pm in the 16-19 age group.<\/p>\n
For more information about the 2005 NYBA Tournament, contact coordinators Jovie Omar or Elias Rangamar at 664-2502, Joe Diaz at 322-7061, or George Cruz at 287-1148.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Northern Youth Basketball Association president Joe Diaz has been in a lot of cardiac games and championship matches before, but all of them don\u2019t compare to his latest challenge\u2014delivering a speech in front of hundreds of people during this afternoon\u2019s opening ceremony for the inaugural NYBA Tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95613","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}