Central Visayas athletes, coaches receive special awards in PRISAA

The Central Visayas squad, aside from retaining its third place overall position in the 2007 Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) National Games, also saw two of its coaches and six of its athletes named as the best in their respective sports.

Coach Jay Ramirez of the University of San Carlos was named the Best Coach in basketball after steering Central Visayas to their convincing wins in all their games played including its championship game with the West Visayas squad.

Ramirez’s son, Niño, was also most deserving as he was picked Most Valuable Player award in basketball after being chosen as Best Forward.

Ramirez’s teammate Ferdinand Lusdoc, a reinforcement of USC from the Bohol Institute of Technology, on the other hand, was named as the Best Center and Lyndon Gudez of the University of San Jose-Recoletos as the Best Guard.

Ramirez, Gudez and Lusdoc were also part of the Mythical Five along with two bets from West Visayas.

In the distaff side, Jessamine Delos Reyes of the University of San Carlos was also one of the members of the Mythical Five in the women’s basketball after being identified as the Best Center. They settled for silver.

In table tennis, coach Jessica Jawad-Honoridez was also named as Best Coach for steering Central Visayas to three consecutive championship titles in the men’s event.

Her ward Michael Motel of the University of Cebu was also proclaimed the Best Table Tennis Player to be at par with his older brother, Emmanuel who was the best player last year.

Foundation University’s Marivic Lastica became the women’s Best Setter in volleyball.

Men’s Basketball

It was a fitting way to end the quest of Central Visayas after silencing the hometown crowd, who supported host Western Visayas in the final battle of the PRISAA National Games men’s basketball, which ended 87-74 in favor of the visiting Cebuanos.

When the host, mostly composed of players from University of San Agustin (USC) toolk the lead, 5-2, Central Visayas woke up and let go of a deafening 20-6 run, including a triple each from Lyndon Gudez and Niño Ramirez.

After posting a 13-point margin at the end of the opening canto, 24-11, USJ-R’s flashy point guard, Armand May Ponce was on the mood for starting the second chapter with rainbow shots.

Western Visayas tried but failed to parry the attempts of Central Visayas, which was under the command of coaches Jay Ramirez and Mike Reyes.

With Bohol Institute of Technology’s Ferdinand Lusdoc missing his tempo, two other players from USJ-R namely Ranulfo Malinao and Ryan Arpay along with Holy Name University’s Jed Apat and Ramirez came to the rescue.

Enjoying a 17-point lead at the end of the first half, 46-29, Central Visayas allowed West Visayas to come near by 10 points, 44-54.

But the cheers from Central Visayas athletes, including the men’s volleyball team, some baseball players, tracksters, takraw artists and badminton players, awakened them to get back into the paint.

As the game heated up and so as a player of Western Visayas, who confronted USC’s Johmel Igao, bumping his body when the latter passed by their bench during a time-out with less than three minutes left.

Cooler heads prevailed and no untoward incident happened and the Central Visayas bets were back on the groove with 17-points advantage, 65-48.

With time running out and Central Visayas already sensing victory, loud cheers of "Daug na! Daug na" filled the gym.

Also included in PRISAA-VII’s men’s basketball squad were USC’s Ryan Carlo Padayao, Paul Norman Joven, Gene Noel Gallarde, James Blanes, Earvin Ferraren and Giovanni Pardillo. — Caecent No-ot-Magsumbol