By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

THE Coalition of Private Schools will be starting the 2007 season of its middle school basketball tournament on Tuesday with six participating schools playing simultaneously in different venues.
Saipan International School will host Marianas Baptist Academy at the SIS court in As Lito.
Only the boys’ middle school teams of SIS and MBA will square off at 3:30 p.m.
The boys and girls’ squads of Grace Christian Academy and Seventh Day Adventist will collide over at the GCA Eagles court in Navy Hill.
Whispering Palms will challenge Mt. Carmel in the boys’ division on the Knights court in Chalan Kanoa.
Saipan Community School drew a bye in the opening day and will see action on Jan. 25 against the Whispering Palms’ boys’ team.
The girls’ teams will play first starting at 3:30 p.m. in the first part of the regular season from Jan. 23 to Feb. 9. The second match will follow 10 minutes after the first games end.
In the final half of the regular season from Feb. 13 to March 2, teams in the boys’ division will play first.
Games in the middle school basketball tournament will be played every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
The regular season will have a double round-robin format. All teams will then be seeded in the playoffs, which will have a single-elimination format.
“The single-elimination tournament in the first week of March will be our version of March Madness,” SIS’s Dale Jenkins said in an email.
He added that after the middle school tournament, they will be holding the high school basketball tournament.
The GCA Eagles won last year’s boys’ middle school and high schools crowns, while the SIS Geckos topped the girls’ middle school and high school divisions.