The face of the game

Gameface.ph was born on the sidelines of another business, but it seems that people in basketball can’t just keep the game on the sidelines. A bunch of alumni of the Ateneo de Manila met in a chatroom (actually, a basketball forum), and exchanged pointed opinions about the state of basketball in the country. Of course, they also shared their frustrations, criticism and anything armchair coaches could think of. Eventually, they decided to have an "eyeball" or face-to-face meeting. Laughably, not the kind you usually expect from a chatroom, but very productive.

"We agreed that there were a lot of needs in the market, and we also wanted to do something that we enjoyed that could make a little bit of money," explains Henry Abes, president and CEO of gameface.ph. "There are a lot of basketball fans out there, and many of us also interested in basketball history. So we started out making jerseys of basketball legends, initially those of former Ateneo players."

Contacting individual players like Steve Watson and Danny Francisco and borrowing some of their competition photos, Abes and company recreated the uniforms that these players wore when they were still active, improved the quality, and sold them on the Internet. Soon they were adding other legendary players to their list, and the business expanded.

The legends jersey business was doing quite well (retailing for about P895 each on the web), until another friend approached them about putting up a website. Although that venture fell through, the group (now including some non-Atenean friends) decide there was a need for a way for hardcore hoops fans to get together. Thus was born www.gameface.ph <http://www.gameface.ph/> , and its tag line "Changing the face of the game" last October.

"We focus primarily on amateur basketball, because we believe in the purity of the game," elaborates Marlo Rustia, vice-president and editor of the site. "There is so much activity going on in basketball, and we were surprised at the intensity and loyalty of he fans."

True enough, gameface.ph does not cover the PBA or PBL, but concentrates on high school and college leagues, and even regional tournaments. Their coverage of the Tiong Lian Filipino-Chinese high school tournament, for example, generated so much attention among alumni and even spectators of the games. Gameface has become the official Internet portal for many high school and college tournaments.

"There are a lot of diamonds in the rough, many stars-in-waiting out there," Abes adds. "And we want to serve as a bridge between them and anyone who may be interested in furthering their careers. That’s another need that we’ve seen."

Gameface expanded to include columns and feature stories, and even video streams of spectacular plays from the competitions they’ve covered. Recently, they started to create school-specific sites, so that fans of particular UAAP and NCAA teams and even schools in other leagues can have a place to gather, shout out, gripe and debate about their favorites.

"It was supposed to be a playground for the more serious students and followers of Philippine amateur hoops," Abes recalls. "Now, the dramatic increase in the site visitor count (over 16,000 and counting) has forced us to develop and offer a wide array of information and media services to further promote the sport of basketball at its purest non-commercial form apart from what they usually see in a typical PBL, UAAP and NCAA fan site."

Now, the site has recruited 15 student reporters to widen its coverage of hoops, and is looking at the Visayas and Mindanao basketball scene. By the end of the year, their goal is to have 100 student-reporters sending them highlights and game stories. Internationally, the group hopes to cover Pinoy basketball leagues in the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico, Canada, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and anywhere else Filipinos play basketball.

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The National Basketball Conference got off to an explosive start at the Tagaytay Convention Center Friday. The northern teams paraded in front of a predominantly female crowd and treated them to two close games, with Spring Parañaque squeaking past Bacchus Harbour Centre in the first game, and the home team Batang Tagaytay carving out a two-point come-from behind win over powerhouse Pangasinan Hundred Islands in the second game. This Friday, the southern conference opens in Pagadian City, with all the Mindanao teams making the trip to entertain the home crowd.

"It was very tiring, but we’re very happy," said an exhausted but visibly please NBC secretary-general Tito Palma. "We had a lot of people come in to help, and now we know that what we’re doing is going to pay off."

Already, at least four other local governments have expressed the desire to join the 12-team NBC’s next conference in five months’ time, including some members of the new Mindanao-Visayas Basketball Association, who see greater potential in the NBC’s nationwide scope.

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The NBC opening and more regional action will be featured on this week’s episode of The Basketball Show on Wednesday at 10:30 over RPN 9. The program is supported by adidas and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.