NSA’s Little Braves off to Korea for exchange games

A youth baseball team—the Little Braves from the Natibu Sports Association (NSA) consisting of 11 players aged 11-12, are on their way to Hongseong, South Korea to participate in the 3rd annual Kim Tae‑kyun Baseball Camp’s three-day exchange games from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

One team from Korea and two teams from Japan will be joining the CNMI in the games that will give valuable international baseball competition experience to the youth.

The team is comprised of Dylan Barcinas, Nate Nekai, Chance Reyes, Damian Herman, Dayton Marchadesch, Damian Sablan, Ralph Magofna Jr., Lennox Sablan, Jesse Cabrera II, Elijah Babauta, and Nethaniel Neth. They are joined by manager Vincent Camacho Jr. and coaches Ian Norita and Nick Nekai. Camacho said the team has been practicing and is looking forward to this first-time participation and will hopefully continue with more in the future.

According to Camacho, this is the first time that a team from the CNMI has been invited to play in this event. With that, he said, “We hope to be able to represent the CNMI well and continue building on these international relationships. The event will consist of three games and also includes training with teams from Korea and Japan that will help our youth develop their skill sets and allow them to experience competition at a higher level.”

Camacho said that the team has been fundraising for the past few months to help defray the cost of airfare and other related costs. “As some may know, NSA is a community non-profit organization that promotes youth delinquency and substance abuse prevention programs through sports and athletics since 2010,” he said.

“We were very fortunate to receive such an invitation to represent the CNMI, and any amount of support donated to NSA will be very helpful and greatly appreciated for the kids. Through the help of our parents, the team has also been able to set up a gofund.me account to be able to receive donations from the mainland as well. https://gofund.me/2a3153cf7. A very big thank you goes out to all those who have helped sponsor and contribute to make this event possible.”

Before these exchange games, the NSA was requested to help set up a friendly baseball match in Dec. 2024, but it was canceled. However, in January 2025, NSA received an invitation to a potential baseball exchange game planned for October or November this year Korea, and NSA accepted the invitation.