The One

MANILA, Philippines - It’s about you (taking) the shot when nobody wants to take it.”

No, these words were not uttered in a bar or club on a random Friday night. This is an actual conversation in the Ravena household I had with Kiefer Ravena, the 17-year-old Ateneo freshman who is causing quite a stir, not just on the hardcourt, but also all over Twitter and Facebook for his basketball prowess.

The Philippines is right smack in the center of a post-Paris Hilton Apocalyptic curve, a Philippine Dragon Boat controversy, and an upswing in the UAAP games with Ateneo taking full glory with eight straight wins, yet Kiefer aka "The Blue Mamba" has still managed to set everyone abuzz. A new college basketball superstar is born.

He arrived quite early at the PhilStar Supreme shoot, so we had to rush things because he had school to attend at 11:30 a.m. Totally unaffected by success, the boy wonder has been doing the one thing he’s loved all his life, giving him a quiet sense of confidence. Again, let me reiterate that he is all of 17, about 6 feet tall, and on the lanky side. But his talent, and how he has captured the hearts of UAAP fans, is something that is the stuff of legend.

Chris Who?: Kiefer is the most talked about player since the legendary Chris Tiu.

As soon as he geared up in Nike’s latest collection of hoodies and shirts, I learned that at 4 years old, he stopped playing with dinosaurs and turned to basketball. He enrolled at the Milo Best Center camp and hasn’t looked back since. At 7 years old he was in the La Salle varsity team, and at 12 he transferred to Ateneo. When he was 13, he made history by becoming the youngest player to be chosen for the junior team, the Ateneo Blue Eaglets. During a championship game, he made history yet again at that same age by scoring an unprecedented 22 points. As if that weren’t enough, when he turned 15, he broke his own record and scored 33 points. I am channeling my inner Quinito Henson here.

However, Kiefer is modest about his own accomplishments and says, “I really owe it to my teammates. They’re all extremely talented players and we really play well as a team.”

MVP in his early years

“When he was in grade six, MVP (yes, that’s Manny V. Pangilinan to us) talked to my husband, Bong about our little boy,” says Kiefer’s mom Mozzy, who joined us at the shoot. The discussion was about MVP’s keen interest in Keifer’s talents and his desire for him to transfer from La Salle to Ateneo.

Mozzy is bubbly and very outspoken about her son, proud of the fact that their household had been able to maintain a sense of normalcy. “I make sure to give them errands, ask them to clean the house and make sure they are responsible family members,” she says. Mom Mozzy (she didn’t know her name was slang for “balls,” meaning strength) shares stories about Kiefer as a child.

Kiefer indeed has the whole world talking, becoming a global Twitter trend almost overnight.

“As a toddler, he didn’t doodle. He drew courts and set plays, and played coach with his dad. He tagged along to his dad’s coaching seminars. His mind works in a different way, I guess, shaped by his childhood. It just really came naturally,” says the proud mother of three athletes in the family, including Kiefer’s younger brother Thirdy, a Blue Eaglet who is taller than him, and sister Dani, a grade school volleyball player. “It’s all a game. It is very normal for us,” she states.

On-cam, he is a natural. Like any athlete, he is at ease with his body, unafraid of the camera. In fact, he is quite photogenic. Right now his priorities are his studies and sports, naturally. We ask him if has any plans of entering show business, as most athletes who attain superstardom usually do. He shrugs it off and just gives me a shy smile.

While conversing with Kiefer, I noticed his tendency to punctuate his sentences with “po” and “opo,” not because he sees me as an elder, but because of his upbringing as a respectful young Pinoy, as opposed to some artistas who are merely trained to speak that way. I foresee endorsements lined up at the door. The changing of the guards for new heroes, in sports or otherwise, can be quite fast.

Sky High: The Blue Eagle rookie begins his ascent towards athletic greatness.

In Ateneo, he feels pretty normal. None of the celebrity treatment you’d expect reserved for young superstars like him. On Twitter, one of his classmates jokingly tweeted after a game, “Now no professor will ever give you failing marks!” I guess that is why he shines even brighter. It is his skill and his attitude towards life and sport that make him stand out.

Ateneo University team manager Paolo Trillo put it best when he said, “It’s a given that Kiefer is athletic and has exceptional skills, but what sets him apart is his basketball IQ and hard work. He is a very mature player for his age, that is why he has what it takes to control a game.”

We can only watch in astonishment.

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