The Nokia RP Youth team leaves via an Air Asia flight from Clark to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia today, determined to reclaim the SEABA junior men’s championship which the country failed to defend in 2006.
Coach Franz Pumaren is bringing in a 15-man roster which he intends to cut down to final 12 before the managers’ meeting Wednesday.
The hopefuls are Fil-foreign players Kyle Nicolas Pascual and Norberto Bryan Torres and home-grown talents Ian Paul Sangalang, Ryan Roose Garcia, Jed Manguera, Mark Anthony Lopez, Jaypee Mendoza, Samuel Joseph Marata, Frank Golla Jr., Mark Joel de Guzman, Joseph Emmanuel Tolentino, Gabriel Banal, Joseph Terso, Mark Joven Mendoza and Philip Paredes.
Officials follow Pumaren and his boys in Kuala Lumpur Thursday in time for the team’s first game against the host squad.
The Malaysians reigned supreme in 2006 in the absence of the Philippines which was then serving a FIBA suspension.
The RP boys last won the SEABA junior men’s championship in 2004.
Pumaren, a long-time national player during the NCC days in the 80s, believes he has formed a team very capable of reclaiming the crown.
The top two teams in the tourney qualify for the Asian youth championship in Tehran, Iran in September. The other competing countries are Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.