Astorga, Baldos head RP youth’s SEA title bid

Holdovers Kevin Astorga and Mike Baldos head the final roster of the RP-Burlington Youth Team tasked to regain the Southeast Asia Basketball Association junior men’s championship starting on Wednesday in Lucena City.

The 6-foot-3 Astorga of International School has been designated captain and the 6-5 Baldos of Ateneo co-captain of the 18-and-under squad being mentored by Johnny Tam.

Completing the lineup are San Beda Red Cubs’ Jay-R Taganas (6-3), Rogemar Menor (6-3) and James Martinez (5-9); Red Lion Martin Antonio (6-5), PCCr’s Alvin Calatayud (6-0), Xavier’s Mike Sy (5-9), Siena’s Dilan Ababou (6-3), Adamson’s Daryl Bautista (6-1), PCU’s Jayson Castro (5-10) and Ateneo’s Carlo Medina (5-5).

Named alterates were UST’s Mark Eubank (6-1), San Beda’s Eduardo Canlas (5-11) and De Ocampo’s Jayson Nocom (6-3).

The starters will be Antonio, Astroga, Bautista, Castro and Martinez.

"This is a fighting team. Well-prepared and solid in every position," said Tam. "Definitely, this is stronger than the one we fielded in Malaysia."

That team, crippled by the inability of five key players to join the trip at the last minute, landed a dismal fourth in the 2002 Kuala Lumpur edition.

To futher boost the team’s cohesion, Rudy Tan, general manager of chief backer Burlington socks, sent the players and the coaching staff to Baguio City last week for the final phase of their training.

There, the players ate and slept together, practiced twice a day and played tune-up games, which they all won, against Baguio Colleges Foundation, University of Baguio and a local commercial team.

Assisting Tam, also an assistant coach of FedEx Express, are Ching Marcelino, Manny Dandan, Eric King and Britt Reroma.

Joining RP-Burlington in the tournament serving as a qualifier for the Asian Basketball Confederation junior men’s championship are defending champion Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Games will be televised over IBC 13, according to Teddy Perena of Teamsports.

The TV coverages are as follows: RP vs Malaysia (6 p.m. Wednesday), RP vs Singapore (12 midnight Thursday), RP vs Thailand (6 p.m. Friday) and final (9 p.m. Saturday).

Aside from Burlington, official socks of the PBA, the TV coverage is supported by Accel, Gran Matador, Hanford, Kitaro and the Journal Group.