Ex-cager now a teacher

SYDNEY – Amado (Ding) de Villa, 65, has lived permanently here since 2007 when he retired as vice president of business development with Century 21 Properties and sold his business interests in Manila, including a restaurant. He’s taking a year off from teaching Facilities Management, his specialty, at the FMEdge Training Institute and coaching the Ravenswood School Year 11 girls varsity, his other specialty, to get ready for the next term. Meanwhile, De Villa is helping out another Filipino residing here Danny Martinez, CEO of the umbrella organization Basketball New South Wales (BNSW) which has a player membership of over 40,000 and supervises the Waratah League, a step below the NBL.

De Villa, a native of San Juan, Batangas, and a cousin of PBA commissioner Chito Salud, is in charge of expanding BNSW relations in the Asia-Pacific Region and hot on his plate are plans to undertake an exchange program involving Filipino and Australian teams. He’s coordinating the bridgework with the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS), the Philippine Sports Commission and the Department of Tourism. Closely working with De Villa in putting together a timetable for implementation is BNSW Philippine representative, GAB commissioner and former PBA cager Fritz Gaston.

“There’s a lot Filipino players can learn from the NSWIS basketball program of coach Damian Cotter,” said De Villa. “NSWIS’ facilities are extremely advanced. They do aerobic conditioning drills to test physical capacity before even bringing players to the court. They can simulate climate conditions of any country in the world for workouts in the gym. They film players making free throws with two cameras taking different angles to find out if there is need to tweak strokes or technique. Their focus is to develop emerging elite athletes.”

De Villa said since NSWIS is located at the Olympic Park, accommodations and the training venue are within reach. “It’s a perfect setting,” he said. “But what makes the NSWIS program even more beneficial is its emphasis on education, value formation and character-building. It’s not just about skill development or winning games. They want to develop good athletes and good people.”

De Villa was a 5-8 spitfirish guard-forward with the La Salle junior and senior varsities. As a high school sophomore, he was elevated from the AAL ranks by coach Br. Leon Castiglione to play with the La Salle varsity that captured the national intercollegiate championship in 1964. His teammates included Caloy Valles, Bernie Berkenkotter and Tony Arenas. “We played Southwestern University for the title and I remember (Alejandrito) Miego pushed me taking off from the foul line for a jump shot to near the goal post. That was when I found out what playing physical meant.” De Villa played four years with the senior team in the NCAA. In his freshman season, La Salle went 0-of-10. Slowly, the Archers improved but never won a title with De Villa. “In my last NCAA game, we played Ateneo which was unbeaten and needed only to beat us to take the title outright,” said De Villa. “With seconds to go, we were up by one and Ateneo’s Chito Afable took a jump shot. I fouled him in the air and Chito fell on his hands. He got up, missed two free throws and we won. Ateneo then had to play Jose Rizal for the title and they lost. Although Ateneo never forgave me for that foul on Chito, some of my good friends are from Ateneo like Ricky Palou and Fritz.” De Villa’s senior coach was Tito Eduque and his teammates included Miguel Bilbao, Julee Lim, Doy Escober, Pitloy Mirasol, Philip Tan, Dindo Guevara, Alex Malixi, Jay Gervasio, Rey Bautista, Jimmy Brown, Fritz Sola and Joaqui Trillo.

De Villa said when he played for the varsity, there was no special treatment from teachers. “I took up accounting and studied hard to earn my degree,” he said. “We practiced from 7 to 9 p.m. so you can imagine how tired I was coming home every night. But the hard work paid off. I worked two years at Citibank after graduation and was a practice player with 7-Up under coach Bay Mumar in the MICAA with players like Baby Boy Morales, Johnny Revilla and Rudy Soriano. I was one of three reserves. I finally gave up basketball to concentrate on my job. But I still played in inter-village tournaments for Bel-Air with guys like Joey Franco and Bilbao. I also played pelota with Manolo Xerez-Burgos and we would eat and drink at Alba’s after the games. I’ve always loved sports.”

From Citibank, De Villa worked 10 years as a project manager in Kuwait and another 10 years in Indonesia as an expat. Then came the offer to work with his classmate Chito Antonio’s brother Joey in business development at Century 21 Properties. His wife Wilma Rufila, a nurse whom he met in Kuwait, moved to Sydney in 1999 and for eight years, he commuted between Manila and Australia. Eventually, De Villa gave up everything in the Philippines to settle here with his wife and their son Andrew, now 31 and employed in a law firm. De Villa’s three other children live abroad – Roselou, 44, is a teacher in San Francisco, Amado Jr., 42, works for Honda also in San Francisco and Roseann, 40, is a Cathay Pacific flight attendant based in Hong Kong. “I couldn’t ask for a more loving, caring and simple wife whom I love very much,” said De Villa who has seven grandchildren. “Life is different in Sydney from Manila. Medical expenses are free, the bus system is efficient and people live simple lives.”

De Villa said he enjoys working with Martinez at BNSW and teaching his specialties. “As a teacher, I earn the equivalent of over P4,000 an hour lecturing two to three days a week on Facilities Management,” he said. “I think it’s something that should be introduced in Philippine business schools. I’m fortunate to be in a position to teach both Facilities Management and basketball through coaching because of my experience. My last visit to Manila was two years ago and I’m looking forward to making more visits in the future to promote both BNSW and the value of Facilities Management.”