Message from El Presidente

Basketball legend Ramon Fernandez is back in the game. No, he’s not coming out of retirement at the age of 54 although the word is El Presidente can still sink his elegant shot with ease.

Fernandez has agreed to head the BAP-SBP training center in the Visayas and is launching his regional program with tryouts at the Sacred Heart School in Gen. Maxilom Ave., Cebu City on Dec. 15 for girls and 16 for boys.

“Mind you, this is for boys and girls,” said the durable Chief Executive whose term is indefinite (and it doesn’t look like any coup is in the offing). “There are only three women’s teams in the local school league. I’ve met with the Cebu coaches with the Region 6 director and they were all very enthusiastic and will support the program. We want to flush out the good young players to understand, come and join the training program.”

It took BAP-SBP executive director Patrick Gregorio and national training center director Eric Altamirano six months to design the program. Now, the blueprint is final and what’s more, the BAP-SBP found a giant sponsor in Tao Corp. Welcoat assistant coach Alex Compton was designated the National Capital Region territory head to lead the campaign in the Big City. Supporting the program in Mindanao are Region 11 director Boy Cua and lawyer Manny Nitoreda.

“With El Presidente, Alex, Manny and Boy, we’re ready to make the big push forward in laying the groundwork for the future of Philippine basketball,” said Gregorio.

Compton said the main thrust is to improve the individual skills of the country’s top young players through intense, skill specific, weekly training sessions. The target is to tap prospects in the 14-18 age bracket.

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“The center will serve as a training ground to prepare young players for the national youth teams that will compete in the 2010 Junior Olympics,” explained Gregorio. “We also aim to identify a network of coaches to work with and deliver the prospective players.”

Gregorio said the plan is to establish an under-19 residency program where the focus is on providing a positive training environment for young players, develop a close working relationship with the grassroots program and the junior national teams, and replicate the training center model throughout the country.

In NCR, the tryouts will be on Dec. 22 for girls and 23 for boys at the Xavier School gym in Greenhills. Players will be split into two age brackets, 14-15 and 16-18. Only 80 players in each bracket will be invited to participate in the tryouts.

In Mindanao, the tryouts will be held on Jan. 12 for girls and 13 for boys at the Ateneo de Davao gym on Roxas Ave., Davao City.

A selection committee will process the nominations from school coaches in NCR, the Visayas and Mindanao to determine those to be invited for the tryouts. 

After the regional tryouts, the top 80 boys – 40 from 14-15 and 40 from 16-18 – will attend specialized camps. The NCR camp will be on Jan. 4-6, the Visayas on Jan. 18-20 and Mindanao on Jan. 25-27.

Then, the selection committee will pick 20 boys from 14-15 and 20 from 16-18 to train in intense weekend camps from February to June. Chosen players from the three regional camps will next be brought to the Brent International School in Mamplasan, Laguna, for a six-day, in-house “elite” camp.

The outstanding cagers from the “elite” sessions will be sent to the Nike All-Asia camp in June. Players rounded up for training will automatically be candidates for the national youth teams competing in the 2008 FIBA junior championships for boys and girls.

For girls, the top 40 from the regional tryouts will qualify to attend the national training center from February to June without going through another round of eliminations.

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In a parallel approach, national youth coach Franz Pumaren recently picked 55 players in the under-18 category to form his initial pool for training. The list will be trimmed to 24 next week. Pumaren’s boys will be seeded to attend the training center weekend camps from February to June.

Gregorio said the training model will benefit provincial prospects whose access to top-level competition, nutrition programs and conditioning regimens is otherwise limited. “It’s a perfect set-up for our country that is divided into so many provinces,” he noted. “We want to refine our players from the palayan to the bagsakan to the marketing end. We also want to address the gap in the development of tall, young players in the provinces.”

Gregorio said the FIBA youth tournaments to look forward to next year are the under-18 junior women’s tournament in Indonesia starting July 19 and the 20th under-18 junior men’s tournament in Iran starting Nov. 20.

 A SEABA qualifying competition is scheduled in Malaysia in May to determine the regional representatives to the zonal under-18 junior men’s championships in Iran.

“Things are moving,” said Gregorio. “We’re asking FIBA if our Philippine men’s team, with coach Chot Reyes, can participate  in the Stankovic Cup in October in Kuwait. And we’re affirming our bid to host the Diamond Ball in Manila.”

The Diamond Ball will gather the five FIBA zone champions, except the US, to play in a tournament with the host team two weeks before the Beijing Olympics. It’s a stand-alone meet that will serve as a tune-up for five teams playing in Beijing. The five teams are African champion Angola, Oceania champion Australia, European champion Russia, Asian champion Iran and defending Olympic champion Argentina, replacing the US.

If Manila wins the bid for the Diamond Ball, the Philippine squad will get a rare chance to battle five Olympic qualifiers, including Iran. In the recent FIBA-Asia Olympic qualifiers in Tokushima, the Philippines lost a close decision to Iran in a game that was decided by a controversial technical foul in the last minute of play.