Piracy or recruitment?

After seeing the fiasco of the Semerad situation, many pundits are calling piracy against Ateneo. Some from San beda even harkened back to a high school star’s decision to play the point guard position at Ateneo. One can wonder if they also said the same for Ford Arao or Art De la Cruz when they decided to go Blue. I guess not huh? So what defines recruitment or piracy?

The difficulty between recruiting and piracy here is that, unlike in the United States, high schools are independent institutions from the universities and colleges that are NCAA members. Here, high schools are very much owned by the universities and colleges. It’s that much difficult to regard a high school basketball player as a recruit or is he a pirate if he jumps to another school? Just look at UST, every Thomasian cried afoul of Kyle Neypes’ and Cedric Labing-Isa’s decision to go to NU. Same with the Letranites when NCAA Juniors’ star players Jarelan “Oda” Tampus and Glen Khobuntin decided to switch their Squire armor to Green Archer and Bulldog “collar.”

Then, there’s San Beda. They have arguably the best grassroots program in all of the nation. They’ve constantly produced a slew of number 1-ranked recruits in the nation. Yet, some spurn the chance to play for the Red Lions and choose to jump fences like LA Tenorio, Renren Ritualo, Jvee Casio, Ponso Gotladera, Ford Arao, Art de la Cruz (he’s back in the Den now), Nico Salva, Von Chavez to name a few. Some San bedans cry piracy especially when it’s a high profile recruit. But for Ford Arao? I did not hear a snick about it. I did hear snickers that his name elicits. Some adamantly refuse to say these high profile high school ballers got recruited. They claim piracy.

The process of recruiting is a very sordid one. With the lax recruitment policies we have, I’m pretty sure cash is involved in trying to get a five-star recruit in your fold. Even a four-star recruit too. But that’s the thing, handing out cash, like what NU purportedly did to Neypes and Labing-Isa, can be called piracy. You’re paying a recruit to play for you. Is the college basketball scene a mini-professional league now? I think not. Hence, we can say that the whole Philippine collegiate basketball landscape is one big piracy mess and only a few schools really recruit and stay true to it.

Recruiting does not involve cash, condominium units, or cars, like what the Semerads once asked in Letran according a little birdie there. Although it does involve some guarantee of making the team, even starting, scholarships, university housing (dormitories), food perks, athletic facility perks among others. That’s how US NCAA schools get players. If they are paid, irreparable damage is done to the school. Wins are retracted, even conference championships, or worse, national championships, docking of allowed scholarships to hand out to recruits, barring from competition, suspension, and a whole lot of unpleasant surprises.

It’s sad because the kids are being taken advantage of. A whispering agent in their ear here and there, wads of cash being handed out, it’s just horrible. I like it much when a head coach ofa school goes scouting and talks to a recruit honestly, like what Coach K does for Duke or Roy Williams for UNC, offering what a school provides: scholarship, a chance to star, a chance to play for a storied program. We need a revolution in our own college basketball scene. And it should start somewhere. Stop the piracy. Start recruiting.

Erratum (for last week’s entry): The graduating players for San Beda College should be Garvo Lanete, Dave Marcelo, Sudan Daniel and Mar Villahermosa not Jake Pascual.