Youth Ball 2010
Bleacher Talk
February 28, 2010
Youth Ball 2010
Only two months of the year have passed and so much has already taken place in Cebu Basketball. The good news is that it’s not all about commercial or pro ball. While we get the usual dose of the NBA and PBA on TV and the news, Cebu has been busy with age group basketball to start off the year. And although this doesn’t attract as much fanfare as those of the big boys, we all know how crucial this is for the future of Cebu Basketball.
Coming to a close today is the ML Kwarta Padala (MLKP) Cup of the Cebu Youth Basketball League or CYBL. Using all of February’s weekends and a dose of holidays, the MLKP Cup started off the year with the goal of kicking off Cebu Basketball’s activities where they should practically start: age group hoops. The league features three age groups: 16, 13 and 10 Under, involving 21 teams playing for some nine schools.
In today’s championship games, the University of San Carlos (USC) South Campus and Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHS) square off in the 10-Under and 13-Under age group divisions. The finalists for the 16-Under age group division was to be decided last night with SHSJ already in the finals, but waiting for the result of the USC North vs USC South game to determine the other team.
Also ongoing is the National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) Developmental League, an 18-Under tournament designed to look for potential national players for the Philippine Youth Team. Five teams make up the NBTC Cebu tournament which features a unique drafting system that sees players from different schools playing together in a team. This same format is also duplicated across the country with the champions from the different provincial and regional tournaments facing each other on the way to the NBTC national finals.
Another youth activity is the CESAFI Partners which for the first time features a high school division aside from the collegiate division. Players here also belong to the 18-Under age group. The addition of the high school division is a big welcome for the CESAFI Partners Cup which only had a collegiate division since it started. Another recent activity was the National Juniors Championship (NJC) organized by the SBP and which brought together to Cebu the top Under 19 and 17 teams from all Luzon to Mindanao.
But what does this all mean?
It’s obviously a good sign for basketball. With a wide base of kids playing basketball practically all year round, we could be looking at a very competitive basketball scene ten to twenty years from now. Never before have we experienced anything like this. When you have boys as young as eight years old keeping themselves busy on weekends by playing in tournaments instead of playing computer games or hanging out in internet café’s, then you’re pretty sure something good is happening. And when you multiply this by the number of teams playing in youth tournaments, that’s your instant base of players for the future. Every weekend, the hardcourts of the SHJS Mango Gym is one big party of basketball games for the games of the MLKP Cup of the CYBL. The “older” teen-agers are at the USC North Gym and Cebu Coliseum for the NBTC D-League and CESAFI Partners Cup, respectively. This is the kind of weekend that we’d rather have to be a norm for us, especially those parents worried about the extra-curricular activities of their kids.
But more than keeping them busy in the right way, all these youth basketball activities will surely develop today’s athletes for tomorrow. For Cebu alone, we no longer have another marquee player in the big leagues to follow Dondon Hontiveros, and there doesn’t seem to be anybody on the radar to do so in the next four to five years. I hope you’re patient as the next Hontiveros might come from the current crop of kids playing today.
Note that these aren’t the only activities for youth hoops for the year. The summer leagues and clinics will be up right after the schoolyear ends. And when school starts, the Milo-backed BEST SBP/Passerelle basketball tournament also takes off nationwide.
Loaded indeed is the year, and we’ve only started. Can’t wait for the rest of the year to arrive.
oOo
Time-out: Happy birthday to Rev. Fr. Noniel Pe. >>> You can reach me at bleachertalk@yahoo.com.
February 28, 2010
Youth Ball 2010
Only two months of the year have passed and so much has already taken place in Cebu Basketball. The good news is that it’s not all about commercial or pro ball. While we get the usual dose of the NBA and PBA on TV and the news, Cebu has been busy with age group basketball to start off the year. And although this doesn’t attract as much fanfare as those of the big boys, we all know how crucial this is for the future of Cebu Basketball.
Coming to a close today is the ML Kwarta Padala (MLKP) Cup of the Cebu Youth Basketball League or CYBL. Using all of February’s weekends and a dose of holidays, the MLKP Cup started off the year with the goal of kicking off Cebu Basketball’s activities where they should practically start: age group hoops. The league features three age groups: 16, 13 and 10 Under, involving 21 teams playing for some nine schools.
In today’s championship games, the University of San Carlos (USC) South Campus and Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHS) square off in the 10-Under and 13-Under age group divisions. The finalists for the 16-Under age group division was to be decided last night with SHSJ already in the finals, but waiting for the result of the USC North vs USC South game to determine the other team.
Also ongoing is the National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) Developmental League, an 18-Under tournament designed to look for potential national players for the Philippine Youth Team. Five teams make up the NBTC Cebu tournament which features a unique drafting system that sees players from different schools playing together in a team. This same format is also duplicated across the country with the champions from the different provincial and regional tournaments facing each other on the way to the NBTC national finals.
Another youth activity is the CESAFI Partners which for the first time features a high school division aside from the collegiate division. Players here also belong to the 18-Under age group. The addition of the high school division is a big welcome for the CESAFI Partners Cup which only had a collegiate division since it started. Another recent activity was the National Juniors Championship (NJC) organized by the SBP and which brought together to Cebu the top Under 19 and 17 teams from all Luzon to Mindanao.
But what does this all mean?
It’s obviously a good sign for basketball. With a wide base of kids playing basketball practically all year round, we could be looking at a very competitive basketball scene ten to twenty years from now. Never before have we experienced anything like this. When you have boys as young as eight years old keeping themselves busy on weekends by playing in tournaments instead of playing computer games or hanging out in internet café’s, then you’re pretty sure something good is happening. And when you multiply this by the number of teams playing in youth tournaments, that’s your instant base of players for the future. Every weekend, the hardcourts of the SHJS Mango Gym is one big party of basketball games for the games of the MLKP Cup of the CYBL. The “older” teen-agers are at the USC North Gym and Cebu Coliseum for the NBTC D-League and CESAFI Partners Cup, respectively. This is the kind of weekend that we’d rather have to be a norm for us, especially those parents worried about the extra-curricular activities of their kids.
But more than keeping them busy in the right way, all these youth basketball activities will surely develop today’s athletes for tomorrow. For Cebu alone, we no longer have another marquee player in the big leagues to follow Dondon Hontiveros, and there doesn’t seem to be anybody on the radar to do so in the next four to five years. I hope you’re patient as the next Hontiveros might come from the current crop of kids playing today.
Note that these aren’t the only activities for youth hoops for the year. The summer leagues and clinics will be up right after the schoolyear ends. And when school starts, the Milo-backed BEST SBP/Passerelle basketball tournament also takes off nationwide.
Loaded indeed is the year, and we’ve only started. Can’t wait for the rest of the year to arrive.
oOo
Time-out: Happy birthday to Rev. Fr. Noniel Pe. >>> You can reach me at bleachertalk@yahoo.com.
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