Who is the ultimate?

This Saturday at 11 a.m., a new sports magazine program will be launched on the ABS-CBN News Channel. The team that produced the long-running and popular program “The Basketball Show” is back with a new sports production aimed at the youth and young adults presented by Smart, called “Ultimate Sports Barkada”. The production team also involves some of the personalities behind the hit ANC sports talk show “Hardball”.

Like its predecessor, “Ultimate Sports Barkada” or USB for short, will feature the most current events in sports, as well as the most popular male and female personalities in sports today. It will also introduce new on-camera talents making their debut outside of live event coverage. The formula is somewhat slanted to the college basketball audience, but will include features on all the country’s great athletes.

A unique feature of the program is that viewers will be able to text in their votes on who should be the “Ultimate Sports Barkada” and “Ultimate Student Barkada” of future episodes. Viewers who text in the most creative answers will get a chance to actually meet the athlete they chose, and receive gift packs from Smart. Viewers will also be able to access NBA, PBA, UAAP and NCAA downloads through numbers to be shown on the program. USB will also have a replay on Sundays at 3 p.m.

The program will also be hosted by Boyet Sison of Hardball, Erika Liboro and Carlo Cruz of the Studio 23’s NCAA broadcasts, magazine writer Kim Go, as well as this writer. The group has a diverse interest in sports, which broadens the scope of coverage. The premiere will feature an analysis of the upcoming WBO title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, a preview of top teams in the upcoming Philippine Collegiate Champions League, the one-of-a-kind Smart Subic International Marathon, the eight-time NCAA swimming champion San Beda Red Sea Lions, and an up-close and personal feature on a member of the Smart-Gilas men’s basketball team.

Future episodes will include interviews with female boxer Annie Albania, the lone gold medalist in the Asian Indoor Games, PBA players, legends of various sports, and current female athletes, as well as athletes headed to the Southeast Asian Games. One of the most eye-opening features, however, will be a look back at great athletes of the past, such as Pancho Villa, soccer great Paulino Alcantara, and our first and last Olympic basketball teams (1936 and 1972).

“That’s one thing we are particularly proud of on this show, that we give the youth a sense of history,” explains Sison, who will be hosting the historical segment. “Imagine the hardship our athletes had to go through. Our Berlin Olympic team spent three weeks on a ship and a week on a train just to get to the Olympics then. And they had to make the same trip going home. They were truly heroic.”

Other sports like sport stacking, Ultimate Frisbee, underwater hockey and ultimate fighting will also be featured in upcoming episodes.

“There’s just so much to cover, we’re getting really excited about the launch,” admits Erika Liboro, a rookie courtside reporter for the NCAA coverage. “When you think about it, we have so many athletes competing for the country, and few people know them.”

With many controversies in sports, the Southeast Asian Games, PBA, Philippine Collegiate Champions League, La Liga Pilipinas, and even the NBA to cover, the USB team will have its hands full in trying to fit everything into 30 minutes. But viewers will also be able to dictate who gets featured on the program. Even better, they get to meet their favorite athletes.

And it all begins this Saturday on ANC.

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Fairways and Bluewater in Boracay will be hosting the 10th Chairman’s Cup-Hampas kay Ondoy at Pepeng, from Nov. 13-15. It is both the birthday celebration of Fil-Estate chair Toti Carino and a fund-raiser for victims of the two typhoons. Special mini-competitions within the tournament itself will make it more fun. Proceeds will go to the charities supporting the victims of Ondoy and Pepeng.