By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

THE CNMI Softball Association will be holding tryouts for the NMI women’s fast-pitch softball team that will be competing in the North Pacific Championship on Guam this year.
Tryout dates will be announced later, but interested players are required to attend an orientation, which will be conducted by Oceania Softball Confederation development officer Andrew Purdon and CNMISA officials.
The mandatory orientation is set for Monday, March 18 at 6 p.m.in the Gilbert C. Ada Gym’s conference room.
Purdon said that at the orientation, he will be explaining the criteria for the selection of the NMI team.
He added that the criteria will be set by the CNMISA officials.
Purdon, who will be on island for three months to help develop fast-pitch softball in the NMI, said that initially CNMISA will pick 25 to 30 players for the NMI pool.
From the pool, the association will select 17 players, which will make up the CNMI Women’s Team that will compete against teams from the Marshall Islands, Guam, Palau, FSM, Nauru and Kiribati.
CNMISA will also have a NMI men’s team, which will be competing in the same tournament.
But no tryouts will be conducted, as members of the NMI squad will be chosen from the teams that play in this year’s CNMI Men’s Fast-pitch Softball Tournament.
So far, the men’s fast-pitch tournament, which will kick off later this month, has lured seven teams.
If the NMI men’s team wins in the North tournament, it will battle the winners in the South Pacific Championships for four slots in the 2008 Oceania Softball Championships, which are tentatively set to be held in New Zealand.
At stake in the Oceania meet is a slot for the World Championships, which will take place in 2009 in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The date for the North Pacific Championships has yet to be set, but OSC president Robert Steffy will arrive on Saipan tomorrow to discuss the details of the tournament with CNMISA officials.
For more information on the orientation, contact Liz Palacios at 287-8869 or Liz Lebria at 322-1201.