CYBL 7: Alaska Basketball Cup Cebu 2014

Things are surely looking up for the Cebu youth basketball scene. After playing some 152 games involving some 48 school-based teams spread over three age groups, the Alaska Basketball Cup Cebu 2014 (Season 7 of the Cebu Youth Basketball League-CYBL) comes to a close this weekend. As a footnote, we are directly involved with the league as its tournament manager as part of our advocacy to promote sports among the youth and helping to grow the Cebu Basketball brand. So yes, I am biased, but biased for Cebu sports.

The dust has cleared and the champions have been declared. Winning the Under 10 age group is the University of San Carlos  Green team which defeated sister school USC Gold in the finals, 44-34. Winning the Under 16 Division 1 championship for a third straight CYBL year was the University of the Visayas  which stopped Cebu Eastern College, 73-55.

The only championship left to be played is the Under 13 Division 1 title. USC Green is already in the finals and is waiting for the winner of the CEC-Holy Spirit School (Tagbilaran) game which is being played today. In Division 2 play, CEC-B won the Under 13 age group title over Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion-Mandaue, 66-39, while Don Bosco Technology Center-B edged UV-B, 64-60, for the Under 16 title. Also being played this week is the Under 19 pocket tournament featuring four teams. That brings the team count to 52 teams.

 Time does fly when one is having fun. After starting with two age groups (Under 16 and 13) and 11 teams in 2008, the CYBL has grown to today’s 52 teams that have crammed games almost every weekend and on every available holiday. With Alaska Milk serving as our title sponsor, corporate support from a national brand was finally achieved, a dream that we once as far back as CYBL Season 1. With PBA great Jojo Lastimosa (who played for USJ-R, Mama’s Love and M. Lhuillier) supporting the place where he rose to prominence, the CYBL finally levelled up. Our deep gratitude goes out to Jolas, Alaska team manager Dickie Bachmann and Alaska CEO Wilfred Uytengsu (who also traces his roots to Cebu) for their trust and support.

The most unique thing about this year’s tournament was the need to adjust to the school calendars of all teams, as all were affected by the delays in classes and school days brought about by the earthquake and Yolanda. In the past, scheduling wasn’t a problem as most schools (if not all) had identical calendars. This year though was different, with each school having its own schedules for third and fourth quarter periodical exams, confirmations, JS Proms, Family Days and graduation ceremonies. This made scheduling both a creative and a resourceful task. Another interesting item was that we had a team from Tagbilaran, Bohol joining the regular tournament and not just the short pocket tournaments that we organize for non-Cebu teams. Holy Spirit School made the effort to travel to Cebu on specially scheduled games over a series of weekends.

One of those weekends included a three-game slate that was wiped out due to a storm which canceled all trips between Bohol and Cebu. While Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu’s Mango Avenue and Canduman campuses hosted most of the games, we also played games at USC North, USC South, UV and CEC campuses.

Our wish is that all these games make better persons out of all the players, coaches and parents involved. We also hope that all this exposure made Cebu Basketball more competitive. When we hear about the likes of Henry Asilum, Paul Desiderio, Kris Porter, Koko Pingoy, Dave Yu, Dawn Ochea and Arnie Padilla making the Philippine national youth teams, we proudly declare that they’re all products of the Cebu Youth Basketball scene. If you check out our “Rico Cybl” page in Facebook, you’ll see a very young Padilla posing with the USC team that won the first ever CYBL Under 13 championship in 2008. We are also proud that many of  today’s collegiate basketball players once played in the CYBL before. But we’ve got to keep on dreaming for more, don’t we? Coming up next is a first ever CYBL summer league which we’ll call the Alaska Basketball Summer League 2014, again with the support of Alaska Milk. This is another first for us as we’ve never had a long-running summer league before. This will be followed by a pocket CYBL Vismin Goodwill Games with teams from Negros, Ormoc, Bacolod, Iloilo, Dumaguete and Cagayan de Oro coming over to join in the fun.

At the end of the day, we continue to dream more and give thanks to the Big Guy upstairs for continuing the bless the Cebu Youth Basketball movement. When the times were tough and things somehow didn’t seem to make sense when resources were down vis-à-vis the demand for more games and teams, everything moved on smoothly without a hitch.

We also thank the parents for taking time out for their kids, spending practically every weekend and holiday with us and cancelling all other plans on these days.

We thank the coaches and school administrators for understanding this tough road that we have to cross and for cooperating with us all the way. We have all proven that as one big Cebu Youth Basketball family, we can truly get things done.

oOo

Time-out: Join the BEST Center Basketball Clinic sponsored by Milo. May 12-17, 2014 at the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Mango Avenue Campus. For more info, check out the page BEST Center Sports-Cebu in Facebook. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].