Welcome to winter

PORTLAND, Oregon — For the four San Beda College players who won the Adidas Asian Streetball championship last September, their first trip to the US was a baptism of ice, not fire.

The big prize for capturing the title was an all-expenses-paid visit to this West Coast city where Adidas houses some 750 employees in an 11-acre property located in central downtown.

The four players and coach Rene Baena flew in last Thursday with Adidas marketing manager Goody Custodio and Solar Sports vice president for marketing Jude Turcuato. Adidas marketing communications assistant manager Odette Velarde arrived here via Los Angeles with sports broadcaster Janelle So.

The players are Borgie Hermida, Eduardo (JR) Tecson, Jay-R (Shaq) Taganas and Bam-Bam Gamalinda.

With the onset of winter, the temperature is dropping all over the US and this city is no exception.

The Filipino group was greeted by 4 degree Celsius weather and although it was an icy welcome, Adidas opened its arms widely and warmly. Luckily, the visitors came well-armed with thick jackets, gloves and caps.

Baena, 48, is San Beda juniors coach Ato Badolato’s chief assistant and piloted the team to the Asian crown. Tecson, Taganas and Gamalinda are San Beda seniors teammates while Hermida is the Red Cubs skipper.

The Adidas Streetball championships involved 18-and-under players in the boys and girls divisions. San Beda survived the National Capital Region eliminations and the National Championships to qualify for the Asian Finals which the teenagers won in a playoff over another Filipino entry, West Negros College. China, Korea, Chinese-Taipei and Hong Kong also participated in the Asian Finals at the Araneta Coliseum.

Also in this trip is the Chinese-Taipei squad that won the Adidas Asian Streetball title in the girls division.

Baena, a physical education graduate from the University of Santo Tomas, never played hoops for the Tigers but was a scholar for five years as a sprinter on the track team. He coached at Lourdes School, La Salle Greenhills, Ateneo (midgets) and the Laguna Lakers in the Metropolitan Basketball Association under coach Boni Garcia and later Vic Sanchez before moving to San Beda in 2000. Baena coached the Red Lions for a year then became Badolato’s assistant starting the 2002-03 season. He is also Lawrence Chongson’s first assistant for the Bacchus-Harbour Centre team in the National Basketball Conference and the Air Philippines-Bacchus club in the Philippine Basketball League.

Last year, Baena spent over a month conducting hoop clinics in Kuala Lumpur on the recommendation of the Basketball Association of the Philippines. He was Johnny Tam’s assistant on the Philippine Youth team that played in the 2002 Southeast Asian Basketball Association championships.

Gamalinda, 19, had a tearful reunion with his mother Marilou here yesterday. They hadn’t seen each other in four years. Gamalinda’s father Dario has passed away and his mother now lives in Sacramento.

"Iyakan kaming dalawa," said the 6-3 Gamalinda who recalled that when his mother left, he was only 5-11. "Nagulat ang mommy ko na tumangkad na ako. Sabi niya, huwag kong pabayaan ang pagaaral ko at pagbutihin ang paglalaro ko."

Gamalinda is from Iligan City and played a year of college ball at Cagayan de Oro then transferred to San Beda. His cage idols are Danny Ildefonso, Alvin Patrimonio, Eddie Jones and Sebastian Telfair.

Taganas, 18, got his nickname "Shaq" from Badolato to distinguish him from Tecson who is also called JR. The 6-3, 210-pound Isabela center was recommended to Badolato by San Beda star and provincemate Ogie Menor. His favorite players are James Yap and of course, the original Shaq.

Tecson, 19, is from Mandaue and played two years for the Red Cubs. The youngest of five children, the 6-1 shooting guard idolizes Dondon Hontiveros and Tracy McGrady. His father Eduardo is a taxi driver and mother Suzette, a bookkeeper.

Hermida, 17, is a Red Cubs senior and the youngest of six. His ambition is to become a PBA player and later a doctor. Last year, the 5-8 point guard was sponsored by Adidas to attend a basketball clinic in China. His favorite players are Denok Miranda and Dwayne Wade.

Adidas established offices here in the early 1990s and employees were deployed in nine different buildings and spread out in cities all over the US. In 2002, the Adidas Village–the company’s US headquarters–was inaugurated and welcomed its employees to a central location.

Adidas’ global head office is in Herzogenaurach, Germany, where the company was founded over 80 years ago. It now has over 110 subsidiaries and about 14,700 employees world-wide.

The concept of a "village" is European in origin with a central square and a sports facility at the center, said Adidas’ Patty Goffe. The Village took two years to construct at a cost of $95 Million. The complex has buildings on two sides of a major roadway and a skybridge was built for convenient passage. The five Adidas buildings were inspired by the Olympic venue cities and the colors of the Olympic rings–Rome 1960 yellow, Tokyo 1964 blue, Athens 1896 green, Chamonix 1924 red and Mexico City 1968 black.

In a tour of the Village, the Filipino group was briefed on how a basketball shoe is developed by a group called Product Creation Technologies and what plans Adidas has to promote more signature basketball shoes in the future.

The visitors were treated to an actual hand processing of a prototype size 15 shoe for San Antonio Spurs center Nazr Mohammad showing his jersey number 2 and his model name "Nazmd."

During the tour, the visitors were special guests at a live TV showing of the 2006 World Cup of Soccer draw in Germany. But that story is for another column.