Elite high school teams clash in Sunkist Youth cagefest

The top four high school teams in the UAAP and NCAA, including University of the Philippines Integrated School, Ateneo de Manila, San Beda and Letran, make up the core of the Sunkist Youth Basketball Championship cast in what promises to be a slambang action in the inaugural staging of the event organized by the Sports Vision Management Group, Inc. and hosted by Mayor Jejomar Binay and the City of Makati.

To spice up action and ensure a top-level competition, the SVMGI has invited eight other top teams in various youth leagues in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao to the keenly-awaited event which fires off tomorrow at the Makati Coliseum and the Koliseyum ng Bayan in Washington Street in Buendia.

They are Xavier School from Tiong Lian, Philippine College of Criminology from CUSA, Faith Academy from MMBL, La Salle-Bacolod, Ateneo de Davao, Pampanga High School, University of San Jose Recoletos from Cebu and Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori School from Northern Mindanao. The other NCR teams are Adamson and University of Santo Tomas and Mapua and San Sebastian College.

"We wanted to ensure top-notch action that’s why we decided to invite the top high school teams to the tournament, said former PBA commissioner and SVMGI president Emilio Jun Bernardino during the launching of the tournament yesterday at the PSA Forum at the Manila Pavilion Hotel.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and the City of Makati as hosts and RFM Corporations president and chief executive officer Jose A. Concepcion III have thrown their all-out support to the event, thus making Sunkist as the title sponsor of the eight-day tournament backed by Air Philippines, the official carrier of the championship, Purefoods, the official hotdogs; Alaska Milk, Molten and Burlington.

The members of the board of directors of the SVMGI are former ABC secretary-general Mauricio ‘Moying’Martelino, Elmer Yanga, former PBA executive director Sonny Barrios, former PBA chairman Iggy Yenko, Chito Loyzaga, PAVA treasurer Ricky Palou, topnotch lawyer Edgar Francisco, former ABC Communications manager Rhea Navarro and Coach Norman Black, one of PBA’s victorious coaches.