My pal Anthony - SPORTING CHANCE by Joaquin M. Henson

Last Thursday, sports broadcaster Anthony Suntay turned a year older.

I’ve known Anthony for nearly eight years now - since he joined the Viva Vintage Sports broadcast team. We got close when we covered the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals last year – we shared a room for almost three weeks shuttling from Los Angeles to Indiana and back. Every Thursday, we co-host the NBA Game of the Week on IBC-13 so the bond keeps getting stronger.

I couldn’t make it to Anthony’s birthday party at Power Up Pasig last year. But I was told it was a blast. Anthony didn’t only treat his friends and relatives but also his favorite charities. He set up an auction where proceeds went to beneficiaries and to highlight his sporting nature, got a sponsor to fork out P100 each time a guest strapped to climb Power Up‘s wall and P250 for every finish.

Although I wasn’t there, Anthony made sure he had a check for Sister Theresa McEntee, a dear friend who takes care of streetchildren and ministers to Death Row convicts in Muntinlupa.

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Anthony’s cut out for sports broadcasting. He’s articulate. He loves sports — he was a La Salle football player, coaches badminton, plays flag football once a week at the Ateneo grounds, swings a mean bat in softball, rock-climbs, and does hoops. He’s a certified sports nut — he spends hours on the internet surfing sports sites, watches sports on TV endlessly, and devours sports sections in newspapers. He’s personable. He looks good — his family has a lineage of actors (his mother Melinda’s brothers are Pepito and Ramil Rodriguez). And he‘s got a big heart.

But he‘s not just a jock. Anthony earned a degree in marketing at La Salle in 1991 and is a budding entrepreneur. He owns and operates a restaurant near the PhilSports Arena, is Joey Cuerdo’s partner at Power Up, and offers events management services where a specialty is promoting movies.

Anthony worked his way up in broadcasting. He began that side of his career at Silverstar, covering college basketball games. Then he moved to the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) and eventually, the PBA. Additionally, he hosts a radio show called "Sports Lite" every Thursday at 10 a.m. on K-Lite FM 103.5.

In line with his broadcasting work, Anthony has traveled to New York to meet the stars of "Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" and to Singapore to confer with the producers of "The Prince of Egypt." And in 1998, he was in Bangkok for the Asian Games. So Anthony’s been around.

Anthony says he owes his success to his family. His father Jess, a prominent businessman, taught him the facts of life and how to be independent. Not too many know that Anthony was a working student — something his father encouraged — and put in hours at a McDonald’s store. His mother, too, has always been a source of strength. And his brothers — twins Lester and Leslie and Vincent — are his best buddies. Lester is a doctor at Perpetual Help, Leslie a businessman, and Vincent an architect.

Of course, Anthony goes bananas without the love of his life, Tet Verano, with whom he has two beautiful kids Anicka, 3, and Kael, four months. No doubt, Anthony’s family is his backbone.

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I made sure I was there for Anthony‘s 34th birthday treat at Power Up Pasig last Thursday. My wife Menchu and I had a great time. The food was excellent, thanks to Outback Steakhouse, and the drinks never ran out - guests gulped down Pop Cola and Spy wine cooler.

Among the well-wishers who showed up were PBA stars Danny Ildefonso, Andy and Danny Siegle, Jeffrey Cariaso, Nick Belasco, Chris Jackson, and Mick Pennisi. Others who toasted Anthony that night included Bobong Velez, PBL Commissioner Chino Trinidad and wife Babette, Tony Chua and Andy Jao of Red Bull, Ed and Carina Picson, Noli Eala, Robbie and Chiqui Puno, T.J. Manotoc, Paolo Trillo, Janelle So, Noel Zarate, Jude Turquato, Abet Ramos and Dong Capinpuyan.

As expected, the auction brought the house down. Danny Seigle got the Northwest Manila-Los Angeles-Manila business class ticket for P64,000 — not bad for a P100,000 value. Last year, the same ticket went to Anthony’s cousin Bong, a Quezon City Councilor, for P42,000. Danny’s brother Andy took a Samsung camera for P1,500. Anthony’s Lola Ling

Javellana won a JVC 21-inch flat TV on a bid of P25,500. An Olympus camera went for P3,800, a Philips VCD for P6,200, and an Oakley thermal jacket for P4,100. Zen, the new age day spa, picked up the tab for the wall-climbers and over P50,000 was donated by the PBA and PBL.

Anthony is still collecting on cash pledges and expects the final tally to reach P200,000 which he’ll donate to the UP-PGH Pedia Ward, the Philippine School for Children with Cerebral Palsy, and the Ma. Lena Buhay Foundation.

Anthony made a lot of people happy last Thursday. And he made his friends and family proud, too. Happy birthday once more, partner. You deserve only the best.