Mindanao Wildcat RP tryouts’ big find

It started as a dream, but now, the dream is closer to reality as the Cebuana Lhuillier Tryouts ng Bayan, a nation wide search for future basketball heroes, moves into the homestretch of its program to form a new national team.

With the national team coaching staff led by Dong Vergeire and Boysie Zamar reaching as far as Sultan Kudarat, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao City in Mindanao, Iloilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Cebu and Tacloban in the Visayas, and Baguio,

Pampanga, Legaspi, and Naga in Luzon, promising talents, big and small, have been found and included in the final tryouts set April 23-24, following the Metro Manila tryouts April 20-21 at the Rizal Coliseum.

And among the finds is Davao native and University of Mindanao Wildcat player Samigue Emman, a six-foot-nine center who moves fast on his feet and has a deft shooting hands that had the coaching staff gushing over him and his future in basketball.

"Definitely, he will be in the final 24-man national training pool and we are looking at him to be one of the major cornerstones of the team, for a big man, he is quick and aggressive, knows how to dribble too, it is just a matter of game maturity and putting on a little more weight," says Vergeire of Emman who had a short stint under the national coach last year with the John O team in the PBL.

But even Vergeire was surprised at the improvement in the game of Emman whose first name of Samigue the father got from San Miguel Beer, and the player admits that he has gained a lot more confidence in himself now from last year, "pero minsan, nawawala pa rin ako sa laro kaya kailangan talaga ng practice. Maganda para sa akin itong makasama sa national team, maganda ang plano nina coach at Mr. Jean Henri Lhuillier sa team at pangarap ko talaga ito," said Emman.

The surprising thing is that when he was younger, he did not play basketball, "labanan ng gagamba, oo, late sa high school na nung me nagturo sa akin na player ng University of Mindanao," added Emman who looks at basketball as the opportunity to improve the lot of his family, his father being a taxi driver in Davao City.

Also, he was already recruited by a Manila school in the late 80’s on his first year in college, "pumasok ako sa JRU at kasama na ako sa team, pero two games lang yata ako nakalaro, nakatry-out na rin ako sa under-18 junior team pero wala ring nangyari kaya bumalik ako sa Davao at naglaro sa UM," said the 22-year-old irregular senior student of UM.

Together with UM teammate six-foot-three Eder John Saldua, Emman has been officially released to the national training team both by his school and the city of Davao who takes pride in their native sons making it to the national squad.

It will not be surprising that with his potentials, even within the year, Emman may get tempting offers to turn professional, but he says he will stick it out first with the national team before turning to the PBA eventually.

Words that can only sound good to national team manager Jean Henri Lhuillier whose vision is to see the country recapture its lost glory in Asian basketball and is willing to spend a lot of money to realize that dream.

And Emman, together with regular national players Celino Cruz, Dennis Madrid, Ricky Calimag, and Richie Melencio, and the rest of the players who will make it to the national team, are more than willing to help Jean Henri make his dream come true.