No worries, mate

SYDNEY – Easily, the most popular expression among Australians is “no worries.” If you say thank you, an Aussie won’t say welcome, he’ll say no worries. If you accidentally bump someone while walking down the street, an Aussie will say no worries after you’ve said sorry. If you ask for the bill in a restaurant, an Aussie will say no worries. If you say excuse me and ask a stranger for directions to a place, an Aussie will say no worries and point you to the right way.

During our week-long stay in Sydney, we encountered friendly and hospitable Aussies who had “no worries” written all over their face. At the top of the list were Basketball New South Wales (BNSW) CEO Danny Martinez, BNSW Asia-Pacific senior development manager Ding de Villa and New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) consultant Daniel Blattman – they coordinated in organizing a first-ever development seminar for La Salle head coach Juno Sauler and assistant coaches Allan Caidic and Jun Limpot.

NSWIS manager of high performance sport and excellent Kim Crane assembled a top-caliber cast of speakers to deliver lectures and interact with the three coaches. It’s not often a seminar is held to feature sporting legends like four-time Olympic basketball star Shane Heal, Olympic wheelchair basketball gold medal coach Ben Ettridge, Olympic rower Gearoid Towey, five-time Tour de France and three-time Olympic cyclist Brad McGee and Australian U-19 men’s head coach, Australian national women’s assistant coach and Sydney Kings assistant coach Damian Cotter. Just to pin down the legends to commit to a compact schedule within one week was no easy task.

Additionally, Crane brought in other sports experts to speak with the coaches like former Australian national softball shortstop and now NSWIS coach and capability assessment guru Troy Baverstock, strength and conditioning coaches Geoff White and Jason Howell, FIBA consultant Peter Lonergan, performance data analyst Matt Harris, NSWIS medical director Dr. Corey Cunningham, NSWIS nutritionist Sally Walker, biomechanics landing assessment trackers Jake Michael and Emma Miller, video specialist and former Australian national kayaker Bjorn Maddern and NSWIS sports psychologist Gerard Faure Brac. The course also allowed for the La Salle coaches to observe basketball drills for the NSWIS scholars and practices of the Sydney Kings. Cotter arranged for the coaches to sit in on the Kings viewing session the day before the game against the Cairns Taipans. The climax was watching the Kings demolish the Taipans at the Sydney Entertainment Center last Friday.

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Aside from BNSW and NSWIS, the La Salle coaches wish to thank the Tioseco family for the lunch treat at the Sydney Fish Market last Sunday. G-Boy, Jeannette and son GJ live in Mudgee, about a four-hour drive from Sydney. Jeannette is a close personal friend of long standing.

Another Filipino who made the stay memorable was Menzies Hotel customer services attendant Pete Mendoza. He drove the coaches around Auburn and Granville in the Sydney suburbs, treated them to lunch in a Japanese restaurant at the Rhodes Shopping Center and even paid for their train tickets. The coaches met Pete at the breakfast buffet room at the Menzies.

Pete, 40, was born in Baguio to a single parent. His mother raised him, later met an Australian in Baguio and after marrying, they left for Sydney in 1987. Three years later, Pete was petitioned to join them. Pete took up two years of high school in Sydney and worked as a dishwasher and a factory packer for a clothing company and a food line before joining the Menzies in 1997. A few years later, he went back to Baguio to marry his childhood sweetheart Yvette Camat, a medical technician, and brought her to Sydney. Today, they live in a Granville apartment with their two sons, 14 and 6. Pete’s mother and his Australian stepfather live in Newcastle and visit their two grandsons at least twice a month.

Pete never met his biological father and is grateful to his mother and stepfather for paving the way for a productive life in Australia. One of the things he misses most about the Philippines is watching the PBA. Like most Filipinos, Pete is crazy about basketball and went with the La Salle coaches to watch the Sydney Kings play Cairns last Friday.

Pete said the Menzies has been around for over 50 years and in the hotel’s golden anniversary, the staff wore retro outfits from the ‘60s like bellbottoms. The hotel staff has a lot of Filipinos and Pete said it’s because Filipinos are widely recognized as hard-working, able to speak English fluently and will always do a good job.

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On the lighter side, the coaches enjoyed their funny moments with De Villa, their BNSW host whom they fondly called “classic.” De Villa, 65, was once a La Salle basketball star who played alongside Joaqui Trillo and Miguel Bilbao. He moved to Sydney permanently in 2007 to join his wife Wilma. While driving the coaches to different places, De Villa would take wrong turns, miss exits and end up nowhere. But as the saying goes, no worries.

Once, De Villa dropped a used toothpick in an apple-beer bottle that Limpot hadn’t finished drinking. On another occasion, De Villa took the group on a Harbor Bridge tour twice over after missing a turnoff. There were more snags like when De Villa left his cellphone in the car and the coaches lost contact for over two hours, when he told the group to be picked up at Sussex Street when he meant Ultimo Road, when Caidic volunteered to bring out his car from a parking lot only to exit in a strange street and was lost for over 30 minutes and when he missed the exit not once but twice and had to retrack to find the Sydney Fish Market.

But the coaches said the trip wouldn’t have been as enjoyable or memorable without De Villa. More than anyone, De Villa sacrificed beyond the call of duty to accommodate the visiting coaches who thanked him profusely and in the end, all he could say was no worries.