National Champions

National champions. It always has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? More so if it’s a champion team out of Cebu. It isn’t too often that a national champion team comes out of Cebu, especially in the age group segment, but last weekend was a good one for Cebu. Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu won the national championship of the Passerelle division of the Milo-backed BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Basketball Tournaments which was played here at the University of San Carlos (USC) Main Gym.

While the Magis Eagles practically walked over the competition composed of the different regional champions in Xavier School of San Juan (National Capital Region), International School for Better Beginnings of Lucena (Luzon) and Claret School of Zamboanga (Mindanao), not many people know that this was a product of a long term program that started around seven years ago. These seven years brought with it a lot of painful moments, sacrifices and little victories along the way. Looking back at how this championship was built is a case study for all basketball programs to consider.

It all started with getting a group of Grade 4 students to start playing basketball. The SHS-AdC coaches led by Rommel Rasmo, and parents at that time had to literally drag the kids to the basketball court to have them try out for the team. These kids were more interested in playing with their toys and high tech gadgets at that time. Basketball was farthest from their minds. But somehow, a team was formed. Looking back now, this same team became the backbone of the current champion team. The likes of Adrian Muller, Reggie Abbu, Aaron Sing, RG Araw-araw, Patrick Go, Kiefer Lim, Bo Fernando, Dandan Tecson, Dave Yu, Alex Lim, Bro Catan and Jarek Mercado were out there learning to play together as a single unit. This team won their first big championship in 2007 when they won the SBP division championship of the Milo BEST Cebu Tournament and later the Visayas regional championship. They placed second to Ateneo de Manila in the national finals, a big achievement coming after three years of playing as a team. This illustrated that a national championship was possible.

Already beyond the 9-12 year old age limit for the SBP division, the team ventured into the Passerelle division for players between 13-15 years old. They won the Cebu championship in 2008 and later the Visayas championship anew. Sensing that the core group of players wouldn’t be sufficient to make it all the way to a national championship, players were brought in to fill in the gaps. In came Daryl Nazareno, Kris Porter, Bradley Bacaltos, Rebreb Diputado, Julius Cadavis in 2008-2009, and later Henry Asilum, Dawn Hynric Ochea and Jair Igna in 2010. On it was to the national finals where another runner-up finish was the result, topped by a humiliating loss 40-point to La Salle Greenhills in the championship game. But that wasn’t it. SHS-AdC won another Cebu and Visayas sweep in 2009, but suffered not one, but two heart-breaking losses in the national finals. The first was an overtime loss to Xavier University highlighted by a foul called on a SHS-AdC on a player attempting a triple with no time left on the clock. The Xavier player made all three free throws to send the game to OT, and they went on to win the game. The other tough loss was to champion La Salle Greenhills. SHS-AdC was in the driver’s seat in the fourth period, only to fall to the persistence and experience of the defending champions. The result was a third place in the national finals. Although they slipped to third in 2009, many believed that they actually played better compared to 2008, and were ripe for something bigger in 2010.

This set the stage for 2010. First came the official announcement in the summer that Cebu would host the national finals. Although this was already set as early as January of 2010, Milo and BEST delayed the announcement. Nothing would be sweeter than winning at home.

Then came the elevated level of intense preparations, a continuation from the previous six years. In January 2010, the team played as a unit in the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL), in an age group one year above their ages. A runner-up finish to USC South was the result, and the coaching staff was more than pleased, knowing that they were playing below the age limit. The summer of 2010 was spent for off-season conditioning training and a barnstorming of Manila’s top Passerelle schools. Lopsided losses to San Beda, Ateneo and Xavier were part of the trip, but this came as part of the territory. There was a purpose behind all these that would be seen somewhere down the road.

The result? An undefeated run. Six straight wins in the Cebu tournament. Four wins in the Visayas Regionals and three straight wins in the national finals, with all wins coming by way of double digit margins. Can this be repeated? Tough, but there’s another task on hand. SHS-AdC must now maintain this pace if it wants to remain on top.

National champions.

* * *

Time-out: You can reach me at [email protected]