Brick and brother/arnis feedback

Vicki Brick has been wondering what’s going on with the women’s national basketball team. The former Maryland guard was vital in helping the Nationals to the bronze medal in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand, despite the fact that organizers were changing the schedule at the last minute.

“I really had a great time, and I loved being over there and playing for the country,” Brick told The STAR in an e-mail. “I was thinking about coming back, but was never officially asked to come back.”

Brick was a Miss Maryland Basketball and led the McDonogh School to 44 straight victories before graduating. A highly recruited combo guard, Vicki led the ACC with 3.1 per game in her rookie season, and paced the Terrapins in assists with 4.3 per game. While she was working for her family’s gym business, “Brick Bodies” in the Baltimore area, she was brought to the attention of then-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Patrick Gregorio, and invited to join the Philippine team.

She immediately blended with her teammates, and the team itself started gaining attention. Although there were some stumbling blocks along the way, the team did improve on its predecessors’ performance.

However, when two more Fil-Ams were added to the team to shore up the frontline, problems started to crop up, as displaced local players and their teammates were unhappy with the situation. This, in turn, allegedly started dissension within the coaching staff, and when head coach Fritz Gaston was no longer in charge, Fil-Ams were no longer included in the team, supposedly to “protect” local players.

One of the problems Brick had was that she made it clear at the onset that she could only be here close to tournament time, and would be unable to stay for extended periods after.

“I am just not able to commit to being over there for months at a time because of my work here,” Brick clarified, quickly adding that she would find a way to play for the team if asked. “Who knows what will happen in the future?”

Meanwhile, her brother, 22-year-old Jonathan, is a senior at The Citadel, a Division 1 school in the Southern Conference. The six-foot guard averaged a career-high 4.5 points per game with 37 percent three-point field goal shooting, and is looking forward to a chance to play in the Philippines.

“My brother is thinking about coming over there to play in the PBL so maybe if he goes over there, I will come too,” Vicki says. “I hope all is well there.”

Perhaps then, Vicki will learn the real score about why she wasn’t asked back.

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This writer would like to acknowledge the strong nationalistic feedback posted by our bloggers on www.philstar.com in reaction to Saturday’s piece on Roland Dantes’ crusade to revive arnis in the Philippines.

Reader noypibone said, “I’ve been waiting for an article like this for a long time. Here’s an article that is truly Pinoy to the bone without the forced pride or false pride which seems to come out of a sense of insecurity (debate if you will). All for basketball ‘patriotism,’ or worse, some deeper national issue.

“If we can’t fix the mess the country is in, we should at least start with a great discipline that is recognized (even appreciated more by foreigners) the world over. Include it in the national curriculum from elementary school, like the Japanese do with judo and the Koreans with taekwon-do. This will instill and ingrain true national pride and SPIRIT that will develop tough discipline in Filipino kids who will turn out truly secure in themselves, good citizens and uplift the country.”

noypibone also suggested better uniforms for arnisadors to make the sport more attractive.

Also on Saturday, cromwell9671 wrote in the vernacular, “Mabuhay, Roland Dantes in your quest to advance arnis. You make great points in once again spreading the sport in the Philippines.

“We have a tendency to be too colonial in our thinking. Why don’t we put our attention on sports where we can be ‘world class.’ Not to be a killjoy, but we give too much attention to basketball. Why don’t we try baseball? There’s a Chinese, Japanese and Latin invasion in MLB. Can’t Pinoys do the same? That’s just my opinion.”

Thanks for writing.