“The Hoopaholics Men’s Basketball Team is cordially invited to participate in the March Madness Pacific Regional Basketball Championships, 20-26 March 2011. All games will be conducted at the Coral Fitness and Sports Complex, located on Andersen AFB, Guam.” said Base Athletic Director Gerrard Barnes in an invitational letter to team Hoopaholics.
The letter further stated “The Athletics Department at Andersen Air Force Base will serve as your official host and sponsor while your team is participating in games on the base.”
This is a military-sponsored regional competition featuring some of the best military junior college level teams and showcasing talent in the Western Pacific area.
All games will be played in the Andersen Air force Base. NCAA rules will govern the tournament, a higher level of basketball than FIBA.
The basketball roster for this competition includes teams from Guam, Hawaii, and Korea along with the Guam’s Senior National Team. Unfortunately all teams from Japan dropped out of the invitational league.
“Latest schedule revision [is] 17 Mar 11. Women will play a double round robin (4 teams) due to Japan teams dropping out. All women’s teams will qualify for the double elimination playoff. I will still continue to work on getting a 5th women’s team until 10:00 am Sunday. If not successful we will proceed with what we have. Good luck everyone.” said league coordinator Gerrard Barnes.
Three teams from the CNMI will be participating in this event: Team Hoopaholics, team Rollers, and the CNMI National Team.
“Just to be clear, Team Hoopaholics, as well as Team Rollers, are only participating in this event for the love of basketball and to gain experience together with our close friends. We are not representing CNMI. That is why we have our National Team.” explained UBA President James Lee in an email to Variety.
“We understand that the level of competition is going to be high, perhaps even tougher than the Micro games given the talent that will be participating on this event. But again, the players from Hoopaholics understand that and we are just honored and excited to be part of this.” Lee added.
Team Hoopaholics would like to extend its gratitude to NTT Docomo/Docomo Pacific as its main sponsor along with the United Basketball Association, Subway and the Tan Siu Lin Foundation.
“[We] would also like to thank other supporters throughout our fundraising events such as: Gold’s Gym, PIC, Grand Hotel, Hyatt Regency, Hollywood Theaters, Trench Tech Inc., Salbahe, and our family and friends for helping out in the fundraising efforts.” included UBA President James Lee in an interview with the Variety.
