"I’m all for community involvement," confesses Skyrockets president Kazumi Hasegawa, who flew in Friday with head coach Marc Joffe. Hasegawa, a UCLA alumna, has always been a big basketball fan, and believes in integrating the community through sports. "I love basketball. I’m obviously a big Bruins fan, so I wanted to bring people together through the sport."
I asked Hasegawa where she got the name for her team. She said it was the first example of how they wanted to get their audience involved in the team.
"We had a contest," the lawyer explained. "I liked Rockets, but Houston already has that. Someone mentioned "sky" and I feel it means things are always looking up, so we were able to put the two together."
Although the San Jose squad already lists some ex-PBA imports among those who tried out in California, they wanted to bring in some Asian players. They already have a Japanese point guard, and were hoping to draw the big Filipino contingent in San Francisco by drafting players here. Because it was their first time, they were unaware of the impact the timing of their one-day tryout would have on the results. Of the expected 40 applicants, only 15 showed up at the PhilSports Arena. Nevertheless, it was an intriguing mix that included former PBA players Rob Johnson and Phil Newton, former MBA All-Star Johnedel Cardel, and Jose Rizal University’s Kenneth Coyiukang.
"The players should be very proud," said Joffe, who actually asked to be part of the legendary John Wooden’s coaching staff back when he was in second-year college. "This is a great opportunity, and the players have done very well."
At the end, team officials approached three of the applicants: former College of St. Benilde Blazer Mark Magsumbol, former PBL player Nic Fasano, and expat Antoine Clinton, their most promising choice. Clinton, a reed-thin American trainor for a call center in Eastwood City, plays pick-up ball with the likes of Ateneo head coach Norman Black and former MBA Fil-Am Jeff Flowers. At 6’7", he can jump out of the gym, and is a streak shooter.
"I’ve gotten dunked on by this guy. He can play," Flowers revealed.
If the players sign contracts with the Skyrockets, they will be flown to California, housed and paid anywhere between $ 3,000 to $4,000 a month for the duration of the season, and perhaps get the attention of scouts who may enlist them for other pro leagues in the US.
"The main goal of the company is to produce or look for a new breed of national hero that is non-Chinese also, because the national team is dominated by Chinese players, so they want to raise the level of basketball among Malays at the grassroots level," Acot elaborates. "It’s a long-term plan. They want to someday return the dominance of the Malay players. AMBAC also wanted to promote racial equality, because there is growing tension between the Malays and the Chinese."
The group included coaches Throngy Aldaba and Xavier Elicay (PBA referees), Dan Acero (St. Joseph Parañaque), Eric Samson (Colegio San Lorenzo), June Longalong (FrioMixx), John Sia (St. Stephen’s), Ronald Pereda (Marist), Gual Garcia (DBTC-Mandaluyong), Joel Palapal (San Beda College), Jun Basa (DBTC-Manda) and Jun Galabin (UPHR). Aside from Kuala Lumpur, the group trooped to Kota Bharu, Terengganu, Pahang, Kuwantan, Keda, Ipoh and Penang. They toured almost all the international schools in Kuala Lumpur, mostly teaching in the burning sun all day.
Acot was also tasked to coach Penang State, which made it back to the finals of the Petronas Cup, where he ran into seven-time defending champion Petronas, beefed up by a core of national men’s and young men’s players. The game was close until the end of the third quarter, where the champions’ deeper bench made the difference.
"We really didn’t know if we would win, because we only had two weeks to prepare, and the league is run by the MABA," Acot adds. "The level of competition increases every year, because more and more Filipino coaches train them."
Ateneo de Manila head coach Norman Black is technical director of the program.
"They’re working on our visas now, so we can go back and make long-term plans," Acot said. "Nobody really believed in the vision of AMBAC, but since we did a good job, many groups want to be part of it. It may take a long time for them to catch up to us, but remember, Filipino coaches are the ones running a lot of basketball programs in other Southeast Asian countries."
And they are also doing their country proud.