A Quiet & Rocky Championship

CEBU, Philippines- A quiet championship? Well unfortunately for us Cebu fans, yes.

We didn’t read too much about it in the local dailies, and while it was mentioned in the national dailies, some writers didn’t mention the real team behind the “cover” name. We’re talking about Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu/Pier One winning the championship of the national finals of the NBTC’s Seaoil Elite League in Bacolod City this week. NBTC stands for the National Basketball Training Center (NBTC), a project of Coach Eric Altamirano. The Magis Eagles carried the name of “Purefoods TJ Hotdog Cebu,” named after one of the brands of the league’s major sponsors, San Miguel Corporation. They had earlier swept the Cebu leg of the tournament where they won every game and went on to defeat UJSR in the Cebu finals last April.

The trek to the top though, did have its ups and downs that actually goes back to November 2010 when the team won the national championship of the Passerelle division of the Milo-backed BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Tournament. The team was then ripe for a serious run at a championship at the next level: the Juniors or high school division of the CESAFI when the players would be turning 16 years old. Note that the Passerelle age group (Under 15) is two years younger than the high school division (Under 17). Just when everyone was drooling at the potential/future of this team which would’ve been together for a run at a Juniors title in the CESAFI this schoolyear, the team lost four key players to the big city up north. Three moved to a traditional high school powerhouse while another was called to play in the national youth Under 16 team. One of the three is also part of the national youth team.

 This is easily one of the biggest dilemmas of coaches who have champion teams. Just when you want to push forward to do more, you suddenly lose the key pieces of the puzzle to a more dynamic and a richer basketball program. And so what do you do? Do you have a choice? You simply have to start all over again, don’t you? And this is where the NBTC campaign of SHS-AdC started. Losing key players meant that the carry-overs from the team would have to step up to take the place of the departed “stars” while those from the farm team or Team B would be called up to join Team A. The main challenge started in the Cebu leg of the NBTC league which was like a replay of the Cebu Passerelle tournament. The school faced common foes in USPF, Don Bosco and USC North in group play, then had USJR and CEC in the semis. It was an SHS-AdC/Pier One vs USJR show in the finals with the Magis Eagles cruising to a championship. At this point, the team surely felt that it wasn’t so bad after all losing the four to Manila. With this came the confidence that would later come to haunt them.

 Off to the national finals they went this past week. The team traveled to Bacolod with their confidence at high levels after winning the NBTC Cebu leg and going 3-2 in the ongoing Jr. CBA (Under 18) tournament. The confidence was at a high when the team won its first game in convincing fashion, a 106-77 romp over the team from Cagayan de Oro. But all this would suddenly screech to a halt when the team lost to late entry West Negros University (WNU) in their second game, 76-80. The loss meant that SHS-AdC’s chances of making it to the semifinals was slim since only the top team of their group would qualify for the semis. With only Cagayan de Oro left on their sked, WNU was in great position to sweep the group. After all, didn’t they beat Cebu, which also won over Cagayan de Oro? Everyone was already declaring WNU as the group’s top seed. A national news story even wrote that WNU was already in the semis. But Cagayan de Oro had something else in mind. The team was already out of the running for a slot in the semifinals, but still went on to play the spoiler’s role to the hilt when they nipped WNU, 96-95, in their last game of group play. By doing this, they gave their Cebuano dorm roommates a free ride to the semifinals for having a superior quotient in a triple tie for first at 2-1. And so from practically nothing came something for the Cebuanos. Buoyed by this sudden lift from the players with whom they shared a dorm room, SHS-AdC cruised to a big 82-44 win over Cavite in the semifinals before topping Bacolod-St. Johns, 68-64 in the championship game. This was one for the books: literally turning garbage to gold.

 At the end of the day, it was all about never giving up and fighting until the end (with the help of a roommate). This has been the summer tale of a group of scrappy players re-grouping to make up for the loss of four key players who were supposed to take them to the higher road. But now that the script has been changed, this lot has decided to do it by themselves. What a storybook ending it would be if they can take it all the way. But now that’s a different story.

***

Time-out: Happy birthday to Mike Limpag! >>> You can reach me at mailto:[email protected].