Nokia U-18 to miss key cagers

MANILA, Philippines - The Nokia Pilipinas Under-18 wants to enlist Fil-Am Ray Parks Jr. for its stints to the FIBA-Asia Junior Men Championship in Yemen this September since several of its key players may skip the event due to their commitment to their respective school teams.

RP Youth coach Eric Altamirano said Keifer Ravena of Ateneo and several players seeing action in the UAAP will miss the Yemen joust because the tournament proper may run in conflict with the schedule of crucial games in the varsity league.

 Altamirano said they are tapping the 6’4” Parks, who will play for the National Bulldogs next UAAP season, to ease the team’s manpower shortage.

Aside from Ravena, who is a main cog of the Ateneo Eaglets in their bid for a third straight high school crown, Ael Banal, another Ateneo player; Gwayne Capacio of La Salle-Zobel, Kevin Ferrer and Cedric Labing-isa of Santo Tomas and Michael Tolomia of Far Eastern are the other players who may miss the FIBA-Asia event.

Altamirano, however, said that Ravena and the other UAAP cagers will definitely play in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association Championship in Myanmar this month to qualify for Yemen.

“Kiefer and the others will play for us in the Seaba tournament in Myanmar, we are not thinking of the Fiba-Asia yet,” said Altamirano. “We need to qualify first.”

Ito Lopa, who is Nokia distributor TAO Corporation’s official representative to Nokia Pilipinas, actually raised the issue during the Congress of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas last June 24.

SBP executive director Noli Eala, said he will discuss with top officials of the UAAP and NCAA the Nationals’ personnel problem.

Nokia Pilipinas plays Malaysia first on July 5, host Yemen the next day, Singapore and Laos next on July 7 and July 8, respectively, before capping its elimination round campaign with an interesting duel with Thailand on July 9 at the Thuwunna National Stadium.

The top two teams will advance to the Fiba-Asia event slated Sept. 22-Oct. 1.

Nokia Pilipinas is hoping to join China, South Korea, Japan, Chinese Tapei, Kazakhstan, India, Lebanon, Iran and Syria in Yemen.