Tuklas Taas finds head national youth five

Five Tuklas Taas products will banner the RP-Youth Burlington team leaving today to compete in the 18th ABC (Asian Basketball Confederation) Junior Men’s Championship slated Sept. 14-23 in Bangalore, India.

They are Mark Angelo Canlas, Jervy Cruz, Dylan Ababou and Darryl Bautista, all from the University of Santo Tomas; and Alvin John Calatayud of Philippine College of Criminology.

Canlas is the team’s tallest at 6-5, Cruz follows at 6-3 while Ababou and Bautista are both 6-1. Calatayud is 6-flat.

"Our nationwide search for tall, young players has borne fruit. Now, they’re given the rare opportunity to represent the country internationally," said Pete and Ruddy Tan, president and general manager, respectively, of longtime RP Youth backer Burlington socks.

Two others, 5-foot-9 Rodel Raneses of San Beda and 5-10 Harvey Aquino of PCCr, were discovered during Taklas Taas’ nationwide tour of the countryside, which was also bankrolled by Burlington, the country’s top hosiery firm.

Completing the Johny Tam-mentored RP-Burlington Youth are 5-8 Michael Sy of De La Salle, 5-9 Diogenes Villame of Ateneo, 6-1 Andrian Celada of PCCr, 6-2 Ram Panganiban of Perpetual Help and 6-2 Led Joseph Claravall of Mapua.

"Let us all rally behind our youth team. The boys have promised to give their best for flag and country and we are solidly behind their quest to bring pride and honor to the nation," said the Tans, who gave a send-off party to the team Friday night.

Teodico Perena will act as team manager of the RP-Burlington Youth being sent to the biennial tournament by the Basketball Association of the Philippines.

Other members of the Philippine delegation to the event confined to players 18 years and under are assistant coach Ricardo King and international referee Ferdinand Pascual.

The Filipinos have been bracketed in the tough Group C of the 16-nation field. Their first outing will be against the tall, bulky Lebanese on Wednesday.

Also in the same bracket with the Filipinos, who earned the trip by sweeping the Southeast Asia Basketball Association Junior Men’s Championship in April, are the favored South Koreans and the dangerous Kuwaitis.

Other teams entered are China, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore in Group A; Iran, Kyrghistan, Japan and Chinese-Taipei in Group B; and Qatar, Hong Kong, Yemen and India in lightweight Group D.

"We have done everything necessary to prepare this team. The players are raring to fight for the country’s glory and we hope they’ll succeed," said the Tans.