Wisdom of the mind

For over 10 years, science professor Bienvenido J. Valdes represented La Salle in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Board as the school’s athletic moderator.

Valdes, now 80, has fond memories of those years when La Salle, Ateneo, San Beda, Letran, Jose Rizal and Mapua battled for NCAA supremacy. That was the era, he adds, when rules were rules and there were no compromises when it came to player eligibility.

"Athletics is not the main reason why a student is in school," he says. "It’s a co-curricular activity. Of course, we want a holistic education – to encompass not only the mind, but also the body. However, the primary reason why a student is in school is academics. During my time, we followed the rules of athletic eligibility strictly. Athletes had to pass 60 percent of their load to be able to play. At La Salle, we never cheated on eligibility. Our president then was Bro. Gabriel Connon and he backed me up in making sure all our athletes were academically eligible."

Valdes is a stickler for rules. When he was La Salle’s junior volleyball coach in 1967, he refused to play his star tosser in the NCAA championship game. The tosser flunked in chemistry which happened to be Valdes’ subject. Instead, Valdes elevated a reliever from the bench. Still, La Salle won the title – without its star. Valdes proudly remembers coaching the Greenies to an unbeaten season where they never lost a single set. "That had to be a record," beams Valdes.

Aside from volleyball, Valdes also coached the La Salle midgets in basketball. Players graduated from the midgets league to the NCAA so Valdes had a hand in molding the Archers’ future stalwarts.

Valdes’ passion for sports is legendary. As a boy, he played baseball – his first love – in Paco sandlots near where his family lived. Today, he remains an avid baseball fan.

In a recent issue of the Educator’s Journal, Valdes wrote an article on physics in baseball. "Based on the third law of Newton on interaction, the ball will travel on a straight line towards the centerfield at almost the same velocity with which it was hurled by the pitcher," he noted in the article. "The angle of flight of the ball follows the rule – the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence which is applied to waves of light and sound. The direction of the flight of the ball is actually the resultant of two forces – the force of the pitcher’s pitch and the force of the swing of that bat." In the article, Valdes explained that the batter must be conscious of the laws of physics in deciding how to strike the ball to determine where it will land.

Valdes finished at the Ateneo with an industrial technology degree in 1942 and took his Master’s in science education at La Salle. He joined the La Salle faculty in 1957 and left in 1983. Valdes called the period from 1959 to 1980 as La Salle’s "green years" in sports. The era saw La Salle bag three NCAA general championships. Tito Eduque coached the Archers – starring Lim Eng Beng – to NCAA hoop titles in 1971 and 1974.

Valdes says it wasn’t unusual for NCAA schools to enlist foreign players in the old days. Players like the Kelsey brothers and Mordy from Jose Rizal College, Al Dunbar from the Ateneo, Keesey and Paul Florence from La Salle were among the foreign players in both the pre-war and post-war NCAA. Valdes remembers his brother Charlie – who later founded his own accounting firm – playing with Florence who used to shoot free throws from an angle at the stripe.

When Valdes was La Salle’s athletic moderator, he says he often quarreled with coaches on player eligibility. "I told the coaches never to cheat on eligibility because if they did, what right did we have to question the eligibility of athletes from other schools?" continues Valdes. "That’s why La Salle was never questioned on eligibility cases. Everyone knew we never compromised. I remember a coach trying to recruit a discus champion for our track team but without an NCEE exam, there was no way to enroll him. I turned him down. I also remember questioning a swimmer from another school – he needed a one-year residence but his school tried to pass him off as a high school graduate entering college. Luckily, I had his swimming records so he was required to establish residence."

Valdes says there are ways to skirt the rules and in the end, it’s all a matter of conscience. "As school officials, we should set the example of integrity for the athletes – they know who are cheating and who aren’t," he asserts.

Regarding the recruitment of Fil-Ams for collegiate teams, Valdes says there is nothing wrong with it. "They’re Filipinos, too," he says. "They improve the quality of how the game is played. Our collegiate leagues are the breeding grounds for future pros. Many of these Fil-Ams hope to turn pro someday. They’re good for the league for as long as they are academically eligible to play for their schools."

Valdes has been an educator for over 50 years. After teaching at La Salle, he taught 16 years at St. Scholastica’s College. At present, Valdes is listed as a chemistry professor at the National Maritime Engineering Institute. His love for the sciences is probably eclipsed only by his love for sports.

About a week ago, I visited Professor Valdes at his home in Paco. He had phoned a few days earlier to share his insights on the touchy issue of player eligibility in the collegiate ranks. I was once his student in high school and I learned a lot from him, both in and out of the classroom. It was time for another lesson, I thought.

At 80, he is a picture of self-discipline. He looked almost the same as he did when I was in high school. He spoke with distinct clarity and his enunciation was, as always, perfect. And he was as outspoken as ever – he admitted his trait of being brutally frank has gotten him into trouble with school authorities in the past.

I enjoyed my visit with Professor Valdes. What we talked about is the subject of today’s column. I never fail to learn from him whenever we talk. It’s more than his voice of experience – it’s really the wisdom of his mind.