School sports goes 12 Months/Year

We all know that the basketball calendar for school-based sports has always been focused on the big leagues or tournaments that take place anywhere between July and October. This is when the UAAP, NCAA and Cebu’s CESAFI have their regular seasons for the coming schoolyear. But what has now become a part of a typical collegiate team’s calendar are all the other off-season activities that have now become important tools to prepare for the regular tournament. Over the past decade or so, these activities have slowly but surely become more popular and have been accepted as part of collegiate ball.

As always, Manila will always be the model or starting point for all. This summer alone, there are three big tournaments in which college teams will be playing. Ending recently was the Fr. Martin Open Cup which was won by San Beda College. This is the first tournament of the summer where college teams get to prepare for the upcoming schoolyear. Ongoing is the PBA D-League where some college teams make up the core of some the teams playing. Also starting this weekend is the 2011 Filoil Flying V Preseason Premier Cup. The Fr. Martin and Filoil tournaments usually also include a high school division. Playing in all these will be a mix of both UAAP and NCAA teams that are using these tournaments as a means to make a final selection for the July season. Rookies get to see a lot of playing time and different sets of plays, player combinations and systems are put to the test. While a win or a championship is important, teams here are looking more to jell, experiment, try the rookies and see if they’re ready for the big one later. In summary, a college or high school team could be possibly playing in three tournaments in the summer. That’s a lot of basketball! It’s also important to note that even before these summer tournaments started, the Fr. Martin and Filoil leagues also ran separate tournaments between November 2010 and March 2011 (second semester of the schoolyear).

For us in Cebu, what do we have? The CESAFI Partners’ Cup kicked off last weekend featuring what could be the future teams of the schools in July. The National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) Elite League, an Under 16 tournament, wraps up this week with SHS-Ateneo de Cebu facing USJR in the finals. Starting after Holy Week is the Cebu Basketball Association’s Under 18 tournament which will feature a mix of high school teams and non-school based ballclubs. The high school teams will most likely be fielding its teams for the coming schoolyear even if the age cut-off still allows players from last season to play. I’m really glad that for the first time, the summer in Cebu will also be busy for school-based teams. I guess it’s better late than never. Manila has been doing these for years and we just hope this becomes a regular feature of the Cebu basketball scene every year. I can’t even remember the last time we had a summer league for school-based teams. And it’s not due to old age.

The other interesting thing to look out for are the Cebu products who are expected to make a big showing in either the Manila or Cebu scene. Leading the list here are the high profile movements of Greg Slaughter (UV) and Mark Jayven Tallo (CIT-U/CEC) to Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU). Making this even more exciting is that they’re joining a recruiting class at ADMU that includes Kiefer Ravena, Von Pessumal and Gwynne Capacio who redshirted last year. They’re joined by Oping Sumalinog of Don Bosco who has recovered from an injury that sidelined him last year. The word in ADMU is that the fight for the 15 slots on the UAAP team is going to be really tough and competitive. The other set of Cebu products are the CEC Four of Nikee Montalvo, Mark Olayon, Roy Villarias, and BJ Zosa. They’re now with the University of the East (UE), but aren’t listed in the team’s roster for the Filoil tournament. Let’s just see if they’re eventually listed or if they’re asked to play on the school’s Team B for now. Jan Colina (UC) is one of Adamson University’s key players who’s ripe to make it big this year. Other Cebu products include Edcor Marata of UST and Jarelan Tampus at La Salle.

On the local front, Junemar Fajardo has decided to stick it out for a run at a second straight CESAFI championship just when everyone was expecting him to move on to Manila. I guess his loyalty and love for UC is really solid. The other new interesting face is actually at the coaching level as Felix “Donbel” Belano takes over from the pair of Boy Cabahug and Al Solis at the UV bench. At the high school level, I’d like to see what CEC has done to make up for the loss of their seniors. Replacing them won’t be easy, but Coaches Jerry Jaranilla and Lou Regidor come up with surprises in the recruiting game as proven last year.

If you take a closer look at school sports, it’s now turning out to be a year-round phenomenon. And it’s all good for basketball development.

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 Time-out: Happy birthday to John Pages! >> You can reach me at [email protected].