In a meeting last Friday, the core group aiming to organize the Masters Basketball Federation of the Northern Marianas formed an interim board of governors to get things going.
Initially chaired by Ray Lizama, the group agreed to come up with the by-laws that will determine the organizational structure and the roles and responsibilities of each officer who will be elected.
For now, the organizers tapped individuals from among themselves to take some responsibilities.
Serving as interim vice chairman is Joe Pangelinan; treasurer is Josh Gabaldon; adviser is Scott Norman; marketing and strategy officer is Yazuhito Irinaka; logistic officer is Joe Mettao, international affairs officer is Arnold Mesa and public and media officer is Arnold Erediano.
Also in the meeting were Gabriel White, president of BANMI Referees’ Association to represent the NMI basketball governing body; Precinct 2 House Representative Raymond Palacios, Edgar Pangelinan and Rachid El Hajj of Marianas Insurance Co.
Lizama and Mettao recalled how the attempts have been made years ago to organize the Masters’ basketball. The efforts they noted never died as there are individuals who did not tire bringing it up.
Finally and hopefully, Lizama said these efforts will start to bear fruits.
Lizama said there are other individuals who could not make it in the meeting but they are the people who have been involved in the previous attempts and want to continue taking part in forming the group now.
White noted that Masters’ basketball is one of the areas that is lacking on the island, and he hopes “we can put this in place now.”
Although local Masters can co-exist with BANMI and the people involved in both groups can work harmoniously, the local Masters is expected to work independently when it comes to pursuing its ultimate goal of joining the World Masters Olympic hopefully in the near future.
For now, however, the organizers want to focus first on local activities for the Masters and try to make it more competitive on the island before going anywhere else.
The Masters basketball involves players 35 years old and above.
Mesa who is part of the Masters basketball in Guam and played in the World Masters Olympic last October shared his own observation on the participants of international Masters’ basketball. And, he believes that if other countries can do it, NMI can do it too.
