Bleacher Talk

Milo BEST: All Basics The Basketball Efficiency Scientific Training (BEST) Center has been around for 31 years, and it has been at the forefront of doing the most basic of basketball teaching: sticking to the basics. This is the primary content of the Milo-sponsored BEST Center basketball clinics that have become an institution in Philippine basketball. “We teach the fundamentals, lahat ng klaseng fundamentals ng basketball — that’s our philosophy, dahil sabi nila, basketball is just a series of fundamentals,” said Nic, who was inspired to bring the concept of basketball clinics to the Philippines 31 years ago when budding players at that time had no formal training in the sport. The BEST Center program is divided into four levels. Level 1 focuses on dribbling and ballhandling fundamentals. Level 2 is focused on the basics of shooting. Level 3 is on Individual Defense while Level 4 is on Individual Offense. Every student who enrolls in the BEST Center starts with Level 1 and moves up ...

Bleacher Talk March 22, 2009 Summer Sports School is out for most, if not all students. The heat has started to make its presence felt and the children are starting to get bored. Yes, it’s summer already. And what does that mean for us in sports? Simple. More sports! When kids don’t have classes and need to be productive over the summer, sports clinics are almost always the first set of activities that parents look for. And this is something Cebu will never fall short of. Cebu has a clinic for every major sport with the most popular events having the most number of clinics. We all know how basketball clinics are all over the place every summer. Parents have a wide range of choices of summer programs to choose from for their children. They can go to the Milo-sponsored BEST basketball clinic, better known as Milo BEST, a regular feature in Milo’s summer sports program. They can also go the likes of the Sunsport clinic run Jojo Romarate, the Hapee-Online Clinic of Mark Tallo, the Talamban...

Milo BEST Clinics in Cebu The Milo-sponsored BEST (Basketball Efficiency and Scientific Training) basketball clinic makes its annual trip to Cebu this summer with two runs to be held on separate dates. This was announced by BEST Cebu Tournament and Clinic Director Rico Navarro. The first run will be from March 30-April 4 at the Capitol Parish Gym. The second run will be held from May 18-23. “We decided to have two runs of the clinic so as to give Cebuanos as many chances as possible to enroll in the clinic,” BEST Cebu Coordinator Rico Navarro said. The BEST Center program is divided into four levels. Level 1 focuses in dribbling and ballhandling fundamentals. Level 2 focuses on shooting. Level 3 is on individual defense while Level 4 is for individual offense. The clinic hours will 8am-12 pm or 1-5pm, depending on the Level in which one is enrolled. All students start at Level 1 and move up at each succeeding clinic. Ball-handling and Dribbling basics are the main focus of Level 1 wit...

Bleacher Talk March 15, 2009 Gorres & Strike 3 Can Z Gorres still make it to the top of the world? If this were baseball, we’ll all have to remember that with three strikes, you’re out! Funny it might be but this is where Gorres finds himself at this point of his colourful career that has been spiked with a lot of ups and downs. We must all remember that Gorres launched his boxing career as a flyweight (112 pounds) in 2001. He ran up 12 straight wins, then won the Philippine flyweight championship in his 13th fight. He then lost his crown on his very next fight. End of the flyweight road. Strike 1. His second breath in boxing was now to fight at the super flyweight division (115 pounds). He raked up 14 straight wins in his new weight from 2003 to 2006, and won the OPBF super flyweight title in the process. This impressive run included three fights in the United States where the international boxing players started to pay attention to him. It was at this stage when he was ripe to go...

UC, USC NC, SHSJ Top CYBL In a message to send that youth basketball is very much alive and balanced among the different school-based ballclubs, five different teams ruled the five divisions at the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL) 2009 season that ended over the weekend. In the elite 16 Under Division-A, the University of Cebu (UC) avoided a repeat of the same finals story from last year as they overcame an end-game rally to defeat defending champs University of San Carlos (USC) South Campus, 69-60. UC was in the driver’s seat through most of the game, until complacency turned into an opportunity for USC South to stage a fourth quarter rally that got them to as close as three, 53-56 with five minutes left in the game. USC South was looking to repeat their comeback story of 2008 where they came from behind to defeat UC in overtime. But the Baby Webmasters recovered just in time behind Alexander Nazareno who scored all seven of his points in the fourth period after team leader Gerald ...

Bleacher Talk March 8, 2009 Respect for Nietes Donnie Nietes. Do you know him? Have you ever heard of him? If a brand awareness study were conducted on boxing and Donnie Nietes, Nietes would most likely get a low awareness score that will be directly proportional to a low popularity rating. Little do sports fans know that aside from Manny Pacquiao, Gerry Peñalosa and Nonito Donaire, the country has another world champion in Donnie Nietes. Did you even know that? He fights in the shadows of his more popular stablemates who go by the names of The Dream (Z Gorres), Boom Boom (Bautista) and Bazooka (Banal). His own nickname doesn’t even ring a bell to many. The irony of it all is that while Z, Boom Boom and AJ are more popular, they still don’t have a world championship belt. So why is Donnie in such a bind? For starters, it’s all about being light. Donnie happens to fight in the 105 pound division. When you’re that light, you’ll obviously go unnoticed since you’re either too small or too ...

Finally, Respect for Nietes Why did Filipino world champion Donnie Nietes go into the hometown of his opponent in Mexico to defend his World Boxing Organization (WBO) minimumweight championship of the world? To some, it wouldn’t make sense. To others, it was like committing suicide. But to Donnie, it was all about respect. Respect he should earn now, after defending his championship through a convincing unanimous decision win over challenger Erik Ramirez in a fight that saw the Mexican hitting the deck four times. And Nietes did all this in Ramirez’s hometown of Oaxaca, Mexico. The irony of it all is that it was Nietes who wanted the fight badly just to gain respect from the boxing community. In a presscon held for Nietes the other night, ALA Promotions President Michael Aldeguer said that after winning the WBO world championship and defending it once here in Cebu, it was imperative that Nietes fight and win a big one abroad to gain the recognition that has somehow eluded him since he...

CYBL News USC, Don Bosco Seal Title Clash in CYBL The University of San Carlos (USC) North Campus and Don Bosco scored convincing wins to arrange a showdown for the championship of the Tropang Growee 13-Under Division A of the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL). USC North upstaged sister team USC South, 44-27, while Don Bosco downed an undermanned Sacred Heart School Jesuit (SHSJ), 52-26. USC North, which lost in overtime to USC South in the elimination round, made sure that the game wouldn’t be another OT thriller as they broke open a close game courtesy of a big third quarter run. Up by only three at the half, 13-10, the Baby Warriors limited USC South to only five points in the third quarter to take a 31-15 lead after three periods. They then thwarted all USC South attempts to stage a rally. In the other game, Don Bosco exploited the depleted SHSJ line-up that had four players in sickbay and three others still recovering from the flu by starting out hot, taking an 18-6 lead after o...