Goodwill pre-season games for youth basketball

When one talks about pre-season games for basketball in the summer, the first thing that comes to mind are the tournaments for college and high school basketball in Manila. In fact, the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premiere Cup made a stop for five days in Cebu last week. But that’s not the only pre-season show in town.

Also being played these days at the Lux Oriens Gym of the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu is pre-season tournament for the younger age groups of basketball. And it features teams from the Visayas and Mindanao. It’s called the CYBL VISMIN Goodwill Games, and it’s sponsored by Alaska. CYBL stands for “Cebu Youth Basketball League” (Admittedly, the mother name of the tournament may no longer be applicable now that teams from VISMIN are involved). The CYBL’s annual summer project gathers as many teams as possible in a pre-season summer tournament to give the teams the opportunity to prepare for the upcoming basketball season when the schoolyear starts. And since nothing can beat a real tournament game as part of a team’s preparation, an annual short pocket tournament was established. There was a consensus that playing against teams from other places was an excellent opportunity for learning and growing as a team. This was the same kind of learning experience that one got from joining regional competitions. The people behind this felt this could be replicated in the summer when there was more time to do so.

It all started in 2011 with just a simple four-team tournament for the Under 12 age group, featuring St. John’s Institute of Bacolod, Cebu Eastern College, University of San Carlos and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu. The 2012 edition grew to two age groups: Under 12 and 15, with teams from Bacolod, Iloilo, Davao and joining the action. The 2013 version maintained the same age groups and cities with Cagayan de Oro also playing.

With its momentum and growth on its side, the 2014 tournament has grown to include teams from Bohol and Leyte (Ormoc). Playing in the Under 12 division are nine teams: SHS-AdC, USC Green, USC Gold, UV, CEC, Don Bosco, Xavier University of Cagayan de Oro, Ateneo de Iloilo, and the Ormoc Fighters. Playing for the championship today are defending champions USC and UV. The teams are split into two groups with a single round robin elimination phase followed by sudden death playoffs. The top four teams move on to a quarterfinal round, semifinals and the championship game. The results of these games may be found in the sports pages of the local dailies and on CYBL VisMin Goodwill Games page on Facebook. The best game thus far was UV’s 51-49 win over Ateneo de Iloilo in the quarterfinals. It was anybody’s game until the last seconds of the game.

The Under 15 division has 13 teams: USC, CEC, USPF 1, Ormoc, RU Shredder of Bacolod, Bohol International Learning Center, One in One, SHS-AdC, UV, DBTC, USPF 2, BAI Training Camp of Tagbilaran, and Ateneo de Iloilo. The teams are split into two groups of six and seven per group. The top two teams after a single round robin classification phase qualify for the sudden death playoffs: crossover semifinals, and then a championship game. As I write this piece, the semifinals was yet to start with USC set to play SHS-AdC, and UV facing CEC. Among the most thrilling games were the overtime come-from-behind win of UV over Ateneo de Iloilo (63-62) and UV’s defeating SHS-AdC, 49-45.

For the visiting teams, the trip is like a pre-planned summer vacation for the family, with basketball as a main event to all the other things they can do in Cebu. The team from Bacolod travelled by land as one big family as did the Iloilo delegation which travelled by boat (and fly back home). The Ormoc delegation is well-organized with logistics, schedules and planning well laid-out. They even managed to get a couple of government buses to shuttle them: one for players and another for the parents. Ditto for the two teams from Bohol which calendared this event two months ago.

 At the end of the day, it was all about having basketball fun and growing as a team and as individuals. While a championship was awarded, the bottom line success factor is to see if the teams learned from its own games and find the ways to improve as the big tournaments draw near. The term “exposure” is always used in games like these. It’s a unique kind of exposure: one that make you learn, grow and develop. And then develop goodwill.

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Time-out: Happy birthday to Macoy Calo! >>> You can reach me at [email protected].