Arnold Mesa who was tasked by the Basketball Association of Northern Mariana Islands to coordinate the league for players 35 years old and above, convened some veteran cagers yesterday and formally informed them to be this year’s Masters league’s officials.
Mesa will be joined by Rey Basa, Joe Pangelinan, Andy Nepaial, Rey Takai, Tony Sablan and Joe Punzalan in voluntarily spearheading the Masters Baskeball Tournament.
Tony Rogolifoi took care of the Masters caging before. During a meeting recently, the BANMI board turned over to Mesa the task to form this year’s committee.
Mesa said the annual league usually ran in different age brackets but in the past few years, it appeared there was less enthusiasm among many of the players. This, he said resulted to forfeitures of many games.
The Masters league which was supposed to be held last March was deferred due to bigger sports event and continuous power outages.
Now, the new committee will start bringing in interested teams to play the Master league which they plan to open on Aug. 20.
This year’s league, Mesa assured will have something to motivate and the island’s veteran basketball players and increase their enthusiasm.
He said the BANMI-sanctioned 2008 Masters Basketball League will be a preparation for the CNMI’s participation in the 2009 Masters Olympic Games that will be held in Sydney, Australia in October 2009.
Dubbed as “the largest league in planet” for having 29 different sports for athletes 35 years and older, the World Olympics, Mesa will be joined by veteran cagers from 94 countries.
In the past, Mesa said veteran NBA players and Olympic gold medalists played in the said tournament, and he guaranteed it will always give NMI veteran players something to look forward.
Unlike last year, Mesa said this year’s Masters’ league will run strictly on one division—35 years old and above. However, only five players in the age bracket of 35 to 39 will be eligible for roster. The rest of the team should be players whose age ranges from 40 and above.
The board, Mesa added will be strict in screening players on age. Those who will turn 35 on the day after the opening will not be eligible.
One of last year’s participating teams in the World Masters carried a banner that reads, “Don’t send a boy to do a man’s job.”
Mesa said that in Masters league, those under 35 are still considered “boy.”
Also, a team can not turn in a roster that consists only of players of single ethnic group or nationality.
Mesa also said that as soon as the league is over, they are looking at holding invitational game with Guam before going to Sydney.
Eight teams he said are enough to go on with the Masters’ league.
