“…I almost forgot how it feels to win; now I know again!”
That’s a rather poignant text message I received Saturday evening from Minoy Villaruel, the captain of iComm International basketball team currently participating in the inter-call center tournament at City Sports.
After four frustrating losses, the win against CallTek was invigorating to the team! All players were so happy after the game and whooped it up after team prayer. The players were still sweaty when they boarded a bus that would bring them to Sumilon Island for a company summer outing.
You could just imagine the kind of welcome they may have received from their colleagues had they lost the game!
From the start, the other teams in the tournament considered iComm the whipping boys. The team doesn’t have the height or the heft to bring the house down. Unbelievably, there are members of the team that have never played organized basketball (where there is clock and referees) until the tournament.
But on Saturday, the team had a statement game. They showed that defense and teamwork could win games. Now the players have regained the confidence they seemed to have lost after absorbing stinging loses in the past four games.
Practicing after those losses doesn’t offer much fun. In a practice the week before the game, only eight players showed up. Intuitively, you could see that confidence among players is waning. But Coach Armand Colina and the assistant coaches work on each player, pointing to him what he should do and where he should be in a certain pattern.
The coaching seemed to have worked as the players played like a well-oiled machine last Saturday. As their defense worked, their offense flowed. The result was a resounding victory that never tasted so good!
I should know…I was at the bench!
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Joe Deresas, a known race organizer, sent me a letter last week informing me of the Queen City of the South footrace on May 25.
My “tukayo” Raffy Uytiepo hasn’t written much about it yet so I’ll jump the gun on him and hope he won’t ban me from eating at his food house “Casa Ilongga” at Robinsons.
This 10K is very attractive. It has special categories (aside from the men and women open) like tourists, CERC (Cebu Executive Runners Club), executive, PNP, AFP, PA, PN, masters and tri-media.
Prize for the open champion (men and women) is P5,000, while the second and third placers, respectively, will get P3,000 and P1,000.
I’m keen on joining the tri-media event but I still have to recuperate fully from a left hamstring injury I sustained last week. I have rested for the past few days but will hit the road soon and will know if I could run.
If I couldn’t, then I need to visit my good friend Dr. Renald Peter T. Ramiro at Cebu Doctors Hospital and have my hamstring seen. I don’t want anything to interfere with my running! I haven’t seen the good doctor for a while after our chance meeting at Marco Polo Plaza Hotel during the convention of rehab medicine doctors in April…its about time to renew acquaintances.
If I don’t feel any pain then, I’ll be at the starting line on May 25.
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