Living the PBA experience

For six straight days, six teams made up of wide-eyed kids in the 13-16 age group will live the PBA experience as they battle for honors in the Coca-Cola PBA Youngstars National Finals starting today at the Treston Gym.

Making it to the homestretch round are the Holy Angel University of Pampanga, District I of Laguna, University of Cebu, Holy Child School of Davao, San Beda College of Taytay and Caloocan. They survived grueling eliminations that began at the provincial level and ended with the regional championships. The breakdown of the finalists is four qualifiers from the regionals (Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao) and two from the National Capital Region.

With Coca-Cola as sponsor, the PBA provided close to 1,500 sets of uniforms to participating teams all over the country. More than 200 games were played from May 5 until the Final Six were chosen. In the NCR, 12 teams slugged it out for the two slots reserved for Metro Manila. Taytay beat Caloocan, 87-70, in the title game as both advanced to the nationals. Others that competed in the NCR included Manila, Rizal Province, San Juan, Marikina and Quezon City. Aside from the 13-16 age group, the PBA put up a 9-12 tournament in Metro Manila as a preliminary event with the view of discovering talent for future Youngstars competitions.

It’s the eighth straight year that the PBA is holding the youth meet from the Junior PBA program of former commissioner Noli Eala to the Batang PBA initiative of former commissioner Sonny Barrios to the Youngstars tournament of commissioner Chito Salud. PBA special assistant to the commissioner Willie Marcial said the annual activity is definitely here to stay.

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“We’ve signed a three-year agreement with Coca-Cola as sponsor and we’re proud to announce the first Coca-Cola PBA Youngstars National Finals,” said Marcial. “This wouldn’t be possible without the all-out backing of the PBA Board of Governors, Commissioner Salud and Coca-Cola led by PBA Governor Ronnie Asuncion. This is our commitment to the youth, our way of exposing the future stars of our country to PBA basketball.”

Marcial said the players from the six teams will experience what it’s like to play in the PBA. “We’re setting up each game like a PBA game, with PBA referees, table officials, a barker, technical committee, the lights and sounds. Technical director is our PBA supervisor of officials Ramil Cruz. We’re filming footage of the games to show as highlights in between PBA game coverages on TV. We’re paying for all the expenses of the teams, from flying them over, to inland transportation, to food and hotel accommodations. There’s no better way to bring the PBA closer to kids than to give them the chance to live the PBA experience. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience they’ll never forget. One of the graduates of this eight-year-old program is Ateneo star Kiefer Ravena who played as an elementary student.”

Games in the National Finals are scheduled at the Treston Gym, Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig and the championship showdown on June 1 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Action got off to a strong start at the provincial level where there were seven to 10 teams for each province. The top three provincial finishers went on to compete in four different regional qualifiers. In Northern Luzon, the provincial teams were the Divine Word Academy of Dagupan, Cauayan City of Isabela and Holy Angel University of Pampanga. In Southern Luzon, the provincial entries were St. Bridget College of Batangas, District I of Laguna and Dasmariñas of Cavite. The Visayan teams were the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos of Bacolod, University of Visayas and Iloilo Central Commerce High School. In Mindanao, the teams were Barangay San Isidro of General Santos City, Assumption of Cagayan de Oro and Davao. The hosts for the regionals were Kong Hua Gym in Cagayan de Oro, West Negros University Gym of Bacolod, the DWAD Gym in Pangasinan and the Laguna Sports Complex in Sta. Cruz. The teams could be either school or barangay-based.

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The regional coordinators were ex-PBA cager Pete Alfaro of Mindanao, Tony Agustin of Visayas, Danny Soria of Northern Luzon and Ranel Villa del Rey, Jud Cauntay and Gherome Ejercito of Southern Luzon.  Ejercito, who played in six PBA seasons, coaches District I of Laguna.

“The response down to the provincial level was tremendous,” said Marcial. “It’s a testament of the PBA’s widespread popularity, particularly among the youth. In the Visayas, for instance, we saw extremely talented teams from the Cebu Eastern College, two from the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu, University of San Carlos and the University of Southern Philippines Foundation. In the 9-12 category in Metro Manila, the title game was a thriller with Marikina beating Rizal, 54-49.”

For sure, several standouts will be unveiled in the six days leading to the championship game. In the regionals, rising stars like Pampanga’s Jeffrey Coronel and Mark Buan and District I of Laguna’s Marcus Jerome Ejercito emerged as players-to-watch. They’ll be in action in the National Finals where more rising stars will be uncovered as UAAP and NCAA scouts keep a close eye on prospects.