Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a multi-part series that tells the life of Enrique “Rick” Ninete, a tennis instructor born in Guam during the Japanese occupation during the Second World War and forced to make a decision potentially lethal for its health and well-being.
When Enrique “Rick” Ninete was about 20 years old, the desire to travel and explore the world consumed him and left Guam for California. With some money in his pocket, he settled in the northern part of the state and took a job as a cook at the University of California at Berkeley.
After a short time, he met Cecilia Taitano and the two married in 1967. Together, they had three children, Cecilia Ninete, Joaquina Fejeran and Esther Ninete Figiir.
During a family outing, the Nineti had a casual encounter with George Sablan, a man from CHamoru who was in the same hamburger restaurant in Concord, California.
After breaking bread and sharing Guam stories, Enrique Ninete and Sablan became close friends. Over the years, Sablan introduced him to tennis and convinced him to become a certified instructor, which led to his new career.
In the late 1970s, Enrique Ninete became an established instructor and his following grew.
“After being certified, I just taught at Martinez’s public courts,” said Enrique Ninete. “The words went around, and so on, and before I knew it, I was full of students from beginner to advanced.
“And then, later, I was tennis director for the Piedmontese city, just near Oakland, for the recreation department.”
In Piedmont, working for the city, Enrique Ninete hired professional tennis instructors and located them “where I wanted them to teach,” he said.
With a career in tennis – forgive the pun – complete swing, another encounter with a CHamoru man eventually paved the way for his return to Guam. Ricardo J. Bordallo, two-term governor of Guam who served between 1975-1979 and 1983-1987, was on a recruiting trip to the United States to convince Chamorus to return to Guam and return the island.
In 1985, the Nineti moved to Guam and Enrique Ninete was hired to direct the tennis program of the Guam Department of Parks and Recreation.
“When I returned, I was hired by the Department of Parks and Recreation under former DPR director John Palomo,” said Enrique Ninete. “They took the opportunity and hired me. And, believe it or not, at that time and at that time, there was a hiring freeze with the Guam government. “
When Enrique Ninete left Guam, there were practically no public tennis courts. His first task, on his return, was to travel to the island and inventory Guam’s resources. He was surprised to learn that Guam had 22 public tennis courts and began planning how to grow sports and bring tennis to the people of Guam.
“I visited all the schools on the island, from elementary to high school, introducing the sport of tennis,” he said. “And then, at one time or another, I planned school trips from schools, from public schools, and they come down and I (would do) the clinics and that at that time was quite successful.
“From there, I had after-school programs for parents who were unable to pick up their children upon leaving school. So many children would show up and I would work with them. … This too was quite successful. “
Enrique Ninete also worked with the Guam Special Olympics, he said, adding, “we made a summer camp for the kids.”
Cultivating tennis was hard work and the time dedicated by Enrique Ninete to building this sport had an impact on his family. In the United States, getting to the end of the month had been much easier, but with five mouths to feed, his meager GovGuam salary left his wife uneasy. Two years after moving to Guam, the Nineti divorced.
“The first salary wasn’t what I was doing in California because they pay a higher rate over there,” said Enrique Ninete.
When he received his first salary, Enrique Ninete remembered the confused look on his wife’s angry face.
“He said, ‘is this it?'” Enrique Ninete remembered that his wife had told him.
“I said, ‘yes, I’m working for the Guam government’, which at that time was $ 6.25 (an hour),” said Ninete. “When I left California, I was making $ 14.75 (an hour).
“There was a big difference in salary and the wife said,” Oh my God, “said Enrique Ninete.
Ten years before returning to Guam, a four-court structure called the Agana Tennis Courts was built for the 1975 South Pacific Games. Just over a huge concrete slab with lines and nets built between the jungle swamps, the Courts served their purpose, but were uninviting.
Enrique Ninete thought the structure could have been much more, so he went to work.
There was “grass everywhere, and I was fighting with bees,” said Enrique Ninete. “It was just a jungle area. I cleaned it.
“I bought a lawn mower. I bought a lumberjack on my own and started clearing the area so it looked like a tennis court, “he said.
After a short period of time, the simply adequate structure was transformed into the Enrique Ninete Tennis Center. In 2004, under the administration of Felix P. Camacho, the tennis center was named for Enrique Ninete, earning the title of living legend.
“They held a ceremony and a signature on the tennis courts,” said 77-year-old Enrique Ninete, who still runs the facility and teaches almost every day. “It was really appreciated for me, for them, but I did a lot of work.”
In March of this year, at the beginning of the coronavirus-inspired public health emergency, Governor Lou Leon Guerrero ordered the closure of all non-essential activities, including tennis courts and all other sports facilities.
Initially, Enrique Ninete ignored the order and kept the tennis center open. He thought that tennis was a socially distant sport and that the government had reacted exaggeratedly.
“It’s an open area and the player is on the other side of the net,” said Enrique Ninete. … “I thought it was OK. I never closed it.”
Shortly after Enrique Ninete’s 77th birthday on March 12, Figiir, as he had already done before going to work, went to the tennis center to turn off the lights. Instead of being greeted by the resident boonie dog, she was greeted by the director of the DPR and a staff member who had locked the entrance to the courtroom.
“He called me and said, ‘the director is here, and … they are putting chains around the gates and the pitch is closed.” Enrique Ninete remembered that his daughter had told him. …
“It was a little disappointing.
“We are human beings and we die,” he said.
With very little reproducible scientific information surrounding COVID-19 and its spread, and with the two recent changes in DPR’s leadership, Guam remains in Pandemic Condition of Readiness 2 and the tennis center is open.
Regardless of whether the courts remain open longer in someone’s guess, but, if GovGuam orders another closure, Enrique Ninete will support the decision.
“If it’s for security reasons, I don’t have any problems,” he said.
.
