Team Ateneo
There’s nothing quite like a surging school spirit to keep you going through the last stretch of the semester. While life ain’t exactly peachy on the greener side of town, one school in particular edged out its collegiate contemporary in the recently concluded UAAP Season 71 Finals. After a hard fought battle, Ateneo finally emerged victorious over its bitter rival La Salle in a decisive 62-51 match-up at the Big Dome in Araneta Coliseum. Where singularities became collectives and a certain blue collective was crowned champion, Ateneo’s sweet victory proved to be the perfect embodiment of the axiom “There is no ‘I’ in team.” University crowds roaring wildly in support of the players; players keeping a focused edge so as not to disappoint; patrons and alumni displaying all that lovin’ for their beloved Alma Mater — the UAAP concocted the perfect synergy between players and spectators, and became a kind of Mecca where strangers — who would otherwise pass each other blankly in their school’s hallowed halls, kept apart by tribal lines — could unite under one battle cry: “Go, Fabilioh! Go, Ateneo!”
While a lot has been written about the who’s who and the spectacle of the recently concluded UAAP season, it becomes just as important to credit the people on the sidelines who have captured the right sort of verve to bolster the threshold of school spirit on- and off-campus. These are THE people behind the scenes who have played a big part in the way the UAAP games have been conducted over the past years. No hardball — just aesthetics and an awareness of posterity that synthesized the superlative match. After all, if spirit is the invisible fuel that keeps a team going, then what is spirit without the bodies that channel it? Meet GetBlued and Fabilioh.com, two Blue Eagle outfits that bring a whole new dimension to what it means to be Atenean.
In 2002, Philip Sison donned the creative lens to shoot Ateneo basketball games as a hobby. That was the same year that the Blue Eagles brought home the championship after over a decade of upsets since their victory in 1988. The following year, Sison committed to shooting all the men’s basketball games at the UAAP until his resignation as an investment banker in 2005 to do fulltime sports photography. About the same year, Nono Felipe, who had been shooting the Blue Eagles informally since 2003, teamed up with Sison, and together, they founded the Ateneo Sports Shooters, a private organization dedicated to providing coverage for all Ateneo teams competing within the UAAP — a mission that seemed daunting at first given the proximity and the schedule conflicts that the photographers might face. While this merry band of blue brothers — composed of students, alumni, staff, and faculty members who are always passionate in both their craft and the exciting field of collegiate sports — say it best with pictures that paint a thousand words, their efforts still come together and fit like cogs in the unstoppable Ateneo machinery at http://www.fabilioh.com, a site frequented by both Ateneo loyalists here and around the world, and even some haters who probably want a slice of the action. Apart from the popular men’s basketball sport, the group has extended its coverage to about 19 other athletic practices and events in the UAAP, including judo, cheer dancing, tennis, and track and field.
In July 2006, GetBlued founders Ken Sy, Kyle Concepcion and Kirk Damasco, B.S. graduates of the management program at the John Gokongwei School of Management, joined the Ateneo Management Association’s Entrepreneurial Challenge in seeking to develop the entrepreneurial drive within its members. The challenge had four legs — shirt selling, band management and CD selling, food and fashion. It was in the first leg that they recognized the striking potential for business and decided to explore this further as they joined the Eagles of Hope Bazaar, an annual Christmas project whose proceeds go to the Eagles of Hope fund that is used to give Excellence in Performance awards to the non-teaching personnel within the university.
Simple, relevant, and a key expression of the rich Ateneo culture that unites people from all walks of life, these have become the quintessential elements that comprise the design philosophy that fuels the success of K Cube Enterprises, fashioned after the owners’ first names. After networking with different organizations from both inside and outside Ateneo, among them The Guidon, aCOMM, Entablado, The Lauan University Center and the Alliance of Legal Management Associations in the Philippines, GetBlued has become a household name on the Ateneo campus and continues to win over legions of clientele from all over the Metro who are stronger, bolder and prouder than ever to wear the Ateneo seal, inside and out.
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Grab ahold of the GetBlued Championship shirts by contacting Kirk Damasco at (0927)377-2614 or visit their site at http://getblued.multiply.com. Also, check out http://www.fabilioh.com for awesome shots of UAAP Season 71.
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Catch your breath at imcalledtoffee@mac.com or visit chasingtoff.multiply.com
