Cage body to organize youth tilt, summer camp

The establishment of an association to focus on basketball development for the kids and youth is in the offing.

According to Elmer Yanga, Joey Concepcion III is spearheading this move and has already lined up two projects for this summer as the initial undertakings of the association.

"We will be having an invitational basketball tournament for the leading high school teams nationwide to be held here in Metro Manila," said Yanga.

Yanga said that the format is similar to the World Basketball Championship and that Concepcion has already asked for the assistance of the group of Jun Bernardino and Moying Martelino to work out the plans for this tournament.

Selecta will be one of the major sponsors of this invitational tournament for high school teams.

"In addition to the youth invitational tournament, we will also put up a basketball camp for kids and youth that will start at the RFM gym immediately after the Holy Week," Yanga said.

According to Yanga, Norman Black and other sports personalities will be involved in this program. There will be two age groups, first is 7 to 11 years old and the second will be 12 to 16 years old. Details of the program will be finalized not later than Feb. 15.

"The plan of PBL to go regional is a very welcome development and in the event that they push through with all members adopting a region, Joey Concepcion III may re-think earlier position of not joining PBL since this will now be consistent with our objective and part of our priorities," Yanga said.

Concepcion believes that regionalization will help grassroot and youth basketball development faster.