NURTURING COLLEGIATE BASKETBALL

The Philippine Star
10/16/09

Very few people in Bacolod City would not have heard of Nonoy Baclao, the former West Negros University basketball star who shed his Mustang uniform for a Blue Eagle jersey, and moved on to become the most valuable player of the 2008 UAAP championship season.

Baclao is now a legend in the sizzling arena of popular collegiate basketball after displaying impeccable defensive play that clinched for Ateneo de Manila University its 7th championship ever since joining the University Athletic Association of the Philippines in 1978.

To say that Baclao’s success is his and his alone would be a great disservice to the people who had supported his career in its early years when he was but a gangly teenager in Bacolod all skinny long arms and legs shooting hoops in cemented half courts under the baking island sun.

To be fair, Baclao has never forgotten or denied his roots, much less turn his back on his former mentors. When he is in Bacolod, he makes it a point to visit Tony Agustin, the athletic director of West Negros University, who had encouraged him to accept Ateneo’s offer even if this meant losing the school team’s best man.

School support

Agustin is also the owner of the WNU Mustangs, now vaunted as one of the stronger university basketball teams in Negros and the entire Visayas. Those who follow the game in this basketball crazy nation would know how deep WNU and Agustin’s commitment is to developing good players.

He continues to maintain one of the most professional collegiate basketball team building regimens that pulls no stops when it means improving the caliber of his players. He even is behind the maintenance of one of the better playing courts in the region.

Such institutions and people are the inspiration why the Philippine Collegiate Champions League founded six years ago strives harder to reach out to more school and university basketball teams and leagues in other areas.

The PCCL is now on its second year under a new game format. Whereas before the League would simply invite champion teams outside of Metro Manila to compete against the top basketball teams from the UAAP and the National College Athletic Association, this has given way to a more systematic mother league elimination games.

Joe Lipa, who is the hard-working PCCL national tournament director, is largely responsible for bringing the number of collegiate teams now competing in this annual elimination games to over 200. To qualify for participation, a team must be a member of a league similar to the UAAP and NCAA. The PCCL now has 27 participating leagues.

College teams and mother leagues

During the recent PCCL Visayas championship games held in Bacolod City, the officials representing the six qualifying teams that had earlier won in their respective mother league elimination games said they found new purpose in keeping their college teams alive.

However, as PCCL chairman, despite the progress achieved in soliciting universities and colleges’ support for basketball and the Champions League in particular, I continue to be concerned about the need to strengthen the caliber of many of the teams.

Understandably, most of them are just starting or rebuilding from fragments of a disbanded league; finding the financial resource necessary to finance the proper training of the players as well as suiting them up for competitions could be difficult to find.

Some have successfully tapped their respective local government’s support, and this has undeniably put the concerned mother leagues back in running form. Such is the case of the Ormoc City Schools Basketball Championship that is participated in by more than 10 teams.

Better coaches

Using a different tack, the John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime signed up a former Purefoods TJ Hotdog guard turned coach, Dongking Sasuman, who quickly reorganized in just two years the college’s ragtag basketball team into a formidable opponent that could even stand up against the experienced WNU Mustangs.

Sasuman, who says that he is more concerned about setting the players’ correct attitude and approach to basketball before training in drills, is a self-taught coach that has benefitted from the extensive training and mentoring he received while playing in professional leagues.

Because of the fighting performance that the John B team had recently been exhibiting, Sasuman says that the representing school owners are now more open to giving more funds to support basketball.

One other observation is that well-managed leagues seem to breed better teams, as could be gleaned from the performances of the five-team strong NOPSSCEA (Negros Occidental Private Schools Sports, Cultural and Educational Association) and the seven-team strong Iloilo Schools Sports Association.

A strong league provides for its member teams the advantage of competing in more games and tournaments. These effectively forge the individual teams’ competitiveness, and are a chance for good coaches to observe and learn new techniques.

For young leagues like the four-team Bohol Basketball League or the six-team Governor’s Cup based in Dumaguete, despite all the odds they face, their enthusiasm remains buoyant because of what they consider as a golden opportunity that the collegiate championship league format now offers.

So much still needs to be done. While the PCCL endeavors to provide more opportunities for basketball teams outside Metro Manila and Cebu to to flourish and grow, it is heartwarming and endearing to note that, despite the ups and downs of organized basketball play, the Filipino’s love for the game has never waned.

2009 Philippine Collegiate Championship update

Eight teams have secured slots in the “Sweet 16” Finals. These are the Ateneo Blue Eagles (UAAP champion), UE Red Warriors, FEU Tamaraws, UST Growling Tigers, San Beda College Red Lions, San Sebastian College-Recoletos Stags, JRU Heavy Bombers and the Letran Knights.

The other automatic qualifier to the “Sweet 16” Finals is the CESAFI (Cebu) champion which will be known before the last week of October. Seven more seats for the Finals will be disputed by eighteen teams starting with the Cebu Zonal games on November 4 to 8, 2009.  

For updates on progress of teams as they continue the journey towards the 2009 Philippine Collegiate Championship games, visit the official website, www.CollegiateChampionsLeague.net or send email enquiries to PCCL_secretariat@yahoo.com.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, SalcedoVillage, 1227 MakatiCity. Or e-mail me at reydgamboa@yahoo.com. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net