SBP sets 1st National Juniors Championships

CEBU, Philippines - The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas has started the ball rolling in its search for the best junior cagers in the country by staging the first ever SBP National Juniors Championships starting next month. The qualifying round for Area 4 (Visayas), which comprised Regions VI, VII and VIII, is slated from November 9 to 15 at the Cebu Coliseum.

“Our main purpose (in holding this event) is to make our aspiring players ripe and ready enough for bigger challenges ahead. This is our breeding ground to form a junior team that will represent the country in international competitions in the future,” said SBP Visayas Area head Joe Soberano in a new conference yesterday at Yayoy’s Grill and Resto Bar.

“Its main highlight is the development of our young basketball players headlong to our ultimate goal of molding them to become members of the RP Team someday,” added Soberano, who is also the team owner of Cebu-Mandaue Landmasters in Liga Pilipinas.

The qualifying phase in Central Visayas involves Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, and Negros Oriental. Eastern Visayas has Tacloban and Samar, while Western Visayas covers Bacolod and Iloilo.

The top teams in the regional eliminations will march into the Area Championships wherein the top two finishers will earn tickets to the National Finals set from December 7 to 13.

“At this point, there is no venue yet for the National Finals but Cebu is keen on do the hosting chores. Definitely we are going to bid for it,” said SBP Central Visayas president and award-winning coach Raul “Yayoy” D. Alcoseba. 

League commissioner Jose “Boy” Murillo said at least a dozen teams have already signified their intent to join the week-long tilt, which features the 19-under for both boys and girls and 17-under age classification.

These include Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) member schools University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), University of the Visayas (UV), University of San Carlos (USC), University of Cebu (UC), Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT), University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF), and Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHS-J).

The others are the Salazar Colleges of Science and Institute of Technology (SCSIT), PAREF-Springdale, Asian College of Technology and a bunch of schools from Tagbilaran/Bohol, Dumaguete and Tacloban.

“I’m hopeful that the CESAFI teams will join because I had earlier talks with the CESAFI officials and they assured me that will support all SBP initiated tournaments,” said Soberano, a highly-accomplished realtor who is among RP’s basketball stakeholders.

Registration fee is pegged at P5,000 per team, while SBP will provide P100,000 subsidy for each area championship.

In the event that more than 12 teams will register, they will be divided into four brackets of three teams each. In case only 10 will enlist, they will be sliced in two groups of five. The top two squads will then clash in the crossover semifinals, with the winners slugging it out for the historic champioship.   (FREEMAN NEWS)