Bleacher Talk

CYBL - Hapee Cup Results from Feb. 23-24 UC, USC North Score Sweeps in CYBL The University of Cebu (UC) and University of San Carlos North Campus ( USC NC ) scored close wins over upset-conscious foes to sweep their respective divisions at the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL) – Hapee Cup over the weekend. UC scored a close 79-75 win over USC South Campus ( USC SC ) in double overtime to take solo leadership of the Midget division. USC SC was on its way to scoring a big upset over the pre-tournament favorites as they led UC throughout the game. And with the game tied at 59-all and six seconds left, USC SC broke down the full-court trap of UC perfectly, but Daryl Nazareno missed from point blank as time expired. The first overtime was a repeat of the last five minutes of regulation as both teams traded baskets and lead changes. With UC down 67-68, UC’s Gerald Ampoon had a chance to lead UC to a win, but could only split his charities to tie the game anew and send it into a second over...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 24, 2008 Good News, Bad News First the good news. Cebu is hosting a national-level basketball tournament called the National Students Basketball Championship (NSBC). This starts tomorrow and will last until early next week. For such a feat, the local basketball family must be jumping for joy and proudly telling the whole country about it. After all, this is a national thing, isn’t it? But why aren’t we doing just that? Why aren’t Cebu’s basketball leaders trumpeting the event in the same way that the local Cebu horse owners group proudly hosted the Governor’s Cup last week? Even the drag racing competition at the SRP seems to be a louder event, and it’s technically only for the rich and their fancy cars. I’m afraid this is where the bad news comes in. The NSBC is not as “national” as it really is. While the ‘NSBC” as a tournament title indicates that it’s a national collegiate tournament, it just isn’t. The only thing national about this is that the country’s differe...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 17, 2008 A Hapee CYBL For today, I’m going to bend over a bit from Bleacher Talk’s “policies” when I talk about the Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL). I normally don’t openly discuss projects which Bleacher Talk directly manages, but this will have to be an exception to the rule and I think you’ll see why. For some time now, we have always talked about the need to develop basketball among the youth. We’re loaded with a lot of basketball activities at the collegiate and commercial levels, but the youth scene has been very quiet. But when you sum it all up, it doesn’t make sense. We’re top heavy with activities, but the base or foundation isn’t aligned with the top. To cut a long story short, we just went out and did it. And so the CYBL was born. It sets itself to be a venue for developmental activities for basketball teams in the Under-15 and Under-12 age groups. The basketball scene for boys under 15 years old is relatively quiet, and it has become our dream to kee...

Bleacher Talk Feb. 3, 2008 Now or Never It couldn’t have been more appropriate. “Now or never” indeed is the situation in which so many boxers find themselves these days, and we’re not talking about only Z Gorres who is hours away from facing Vic Darchinyan as I write this piece. When you say now or never in boxing, we’re talking about all our favorite boxers who find themselves neither here nor there. They’ve reached so far yet they always fall short of that elusive dream of a world championship. And thus, their real chances of winning a world championship skews towards the “never” side of life. At Friday’s weigh-in for ‘Now or Never,” I bumped into former world flyweight champ Malcolm Tuñacao, a classic case of the now or never syndrome who refuses to say “never.” When I asked about his plans for the future, he said he will still go on fighting and would go back to the gym starting tomorrow. If he shows up at the ALA Gym like he said, then I hope that’s a good sign of better things t...

Sacred Heart Wins RIFA Cup The Sacred Heart School Jesuit (SHSJ) Boys 97 football team defeated Colegio de San Agustin (CSA), 3-1, in a penalty shoot-out to win the Rizal Football Association’s RIFA Cup 2008 at the CSA football field in Makati over the weekend. The game ended in a 1-all tie at the end of regulation period, and SHSJ needed to rely on their penalty kicks for the second straight year to defend their crown. CSA scored first in the first half of regulation, but the Eagles retaliated through JM Acebedo-Kwan’s penalty kick after Kiko Villamor was fouled by a CSA defender in the penalty area late in the game. Acebedo-Kwan’s goal not only found the back of the net, but more importantly lifted the spirits of the Eagles, enabling them to gain back the momentum they had lost after finding themselves down 0-1, going into the end-game. Acebedo-Kwan, Jerby Bernaldez and tournament MVP Villamor made sure that there wouldn’t be any doubt to the outcome as they nailed their respective k...

Bleacher Talk January 27, 2008 NBTC Call it good timing or providential, but the launch of the National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) took place two days after the feast of the Sto. Niño. And the common denominator here is celebrating and recognizing the value of the youth. No less than BAP-SBP Executive Director Pato Gregorio welcomed and introduced 38 teen-agers who will compose the NBTC’s first batch of trainees under the eyes of the program’s national head Eric Altamirano and Cebu’s head trainer Ramon Fernandez. The importance of starting our national team program from the grassroots and the youth has always been neglected in the past, but with its launch, the NBTC might just be what the country needs to produce competitive national teams in the future. The NBTC is composed of two sets of players according to their ages. The younger set is for those 14-15 years old while the other is made up of 16-17 year old boys. All of them will train together under a 60-hour program that wi...

Bleacher Talk January 20, 2008 Organized Mess It’s organized. It’s a mess. It’s confusing. It’s boggling. But you know what? It will be all good for basketball. What a way to start the basketball year. A year after the unity congress for basketball was organized and the two sides of this family problem were supposed to have kissed and made up, here we are back to square one. Or so it might seem. Right here in Cebu’s collegiate scene alone, we have four tournaments out to collar Cebu’s best collegiate teams. Off and running are the CESAFI Partners Cup and the Visayas Amateur Athletic Association (VAAA). On deck is the upcoming Hotel Fortuna Cup tentatively set to start on Tuesday and the BAP’s National Students Basketball Championship (NSBC) from February 26-March 2, another two leagues for collegiate basketball. And if that weren’t enough, we also have the regional and national legs of the PRISAA tournament. So when is enough really enough? We have three major entities featuring colleg...

Bleacher Talk January 13, 2008 Cebu Boxing in 2008 This early, it’s already obvious that 2008 is going to be great for Cebu Boxing. If there were to be a theme for the year, then it would be something along the lines of Cebu stamping itself as the country’s true hotbed of boxing and serving as the country’s top boxing “exporter” to the world. Cebu Boxing is no longer a local brand. It’s global. Cebu Boxing is starting out the year with two Cebu-bred world champions in WBO bantamweight champ Gerry Peñalosa and WBO miniflyweight champ Donnie Nietes. Although many expected another set of names to become world champs in 2007, the two proved that they too, deserve our attention. They may not be as popular as the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Boom Boom Bautista and AJ Banal, but what counts most is that they have the belts that the others don’t. Both Gerry and Donnie should weather through all the storms in 2008 and finish the year unscathed. Gerry will defeat Ratanachai Sor Vorapin in his first ...

Bleacher Talk January 6, 2008 Basketball in 2008 What do we expect to see in Cebu Basketball in 2008? It looks like the year will be the same as 2007. Don’t expect major changes or surprising things to happen. I’m not sure if this is good or bad for local basketball, but what bothers me is that we seem to be getting stagnant in terms of development. If there’s something we would like to see in 2008, it’s the “upgrading” of Cebu Basketball to a higher level amidst the total Philippine outlook. It’s crystal ball time so let’s see what will happen this year. For starters, our basketball leaders will remain to be the same. The Michel Lhuillier – Yayoy Alcoseba team will still remain to be the region’s leaders at the BAP-SBP, while Lorenzo “Chao” Sy will hold on to his post as the BAP-SBP’s Director for Cebu. The CESAFI will still have Engr. Rolly Villa as President, but the big question is if Commissioner Felix “Boy” Tiukinhoy will push through with his resignation when the CESAFI 07-08 se...

Bleacher Talk December 30, 2007 Cebu Boxing in 2007 2007 will go down in Cebu Boxing history as a year of the unheralded pulling the rug from under their more popular brethren, proving time and again that the underdog does come out on top to win battles. In the end, the typical underdog in Cebu remained to be to tops in boxing. The Philippines produced four world champs in 2007, with two of these champions tracing their roots to Cebu Boxing. Gerry Peñalosa and Donnie Nietes joined Nonito Donaire Jr. and Florante Condes as the country’s officially-recognized world champions alongside uncrowned champ Manny Pacquiao. The interesting thing about this is that both boxers weren’t exactly “expected” by the boxing family to become world champs. They were always the names behind the more popular boxers who were a common sight in the sports pages. In the case of Nietes, he has always had to play second fiddle to the ALA Gym’s more recognized Boom Boom Bautista, Z Gorres, AJ Ba...

Bleacher Talk December 23, 2007 Cebu Basketball in 2007 Cebu Basketball in 2007 will go down the record books as a year featuring basically two major entities on the rise: CESAFI and Yayoy, not in any particular order. The CESAFI 2007 basketball tournament was the biggest and most successful in Cebu collegiate history, featuring record highs in terms of attendance, competition, support, and over-all impact on the local basketball scene. Although they were shoo-in favorites to win a seventh straight title, the University of the Visayas Lancers (UV) had to go through some scary moments against both the University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR) and the University of San Carlos (USC) in the playoffs. UV was stretched to rubber matches against both teams, and if it weren’t for their championship experience and heart, we might have seen a new CESAFI champion this year. CESAFI’s successful seventh season wouldn’t have been possible without the more balanced competition and the tremendous suppor...

Bleacher Talk December 16, 2007 Behind Pacman Cup If you’re a regular follower of the sports pages of any of the local dailies, you might have come across stories about the MP Cup Invitational Basketball Tournament that ended last week. Team Pacman won the championship over USC-M. Lhuillier last Sunday to cap the two-month tournament that was originally set up as a Manny Pacquiao’s way of saying “thanks” to his friends in basketball. You might have noticed that we in Bleacher Talk didn’t write about it (until now), but that was for a particular reason: delicadeza. I guess you can say that now it can be told. Bleacher Talk was asked to serve as the tournament director of the MP Cup by the Pacman’s close friend, Barangay Captain George Rama, through TF sports editor Manny Villaruel. Since we were about to end the CESAFI basketball tournament where we served as a Deputy Commissioner, we felt that this would be a piece of cake. But it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. I write about this as I s...

Bleacher Talk December 9, 2007 December Basketball I’ve always believed that many activities are supposed to take a back seat to the usual December itineraries whenever this time of the year rolls around. Malls are filled. Stores are swamped with Christmas shopping. Restaurants enjoy their peak days. Every weekend of the month is filled with at least a party that one has to attend, whether this be for the office, a supplier, school or a friend. And sports? Did you ask about basketball? Will basketball also take a back seat? Believe it or not, it’s actually just as busy as all this Christmas shopping. On this day alone, you have the opening day of the CESAFI Partners Cup at the Cebu Coliseum. Five teams are seeing action here. Last Friday, M.Lhuillier wrapped up the Visayas Division championship of the Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association (MVBA) and will face MisOr in the MVBA Finals. Game 1 will be played in Cagayan de Oro, but all the succeeding games will be played here in Cebu wi...

Bleacher Talk December 2, 2007 Booming Bazooka As boxing fans eagerly await the official announcement of the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch, they’ll be treated to another Sunday morning of boxing featuring two boxers who are being groomed to follow in the footsteps of the “Pambansang Kamao.” Every time the question of succession is discussed, there is no unanimous reply as to who deserves to be called the next in line to the Pacman. Z Gorres, Boom Boom Bautista, Rodel Mayol and Yuka Gejon had their chance earlier this year, but it was the unlikely trio of Nonito Donaire, Florante Condes and Donnie Nietes who got the job done without all the fanfare and hype that the likes of Boom Boom and Gorres have received. And so we ask again. Should Boom Boom still be part of this list of future world champs? The steep road to that elusive goal starts today when Boom Boom defends his WBO Intercontinental super bantamweight championship against Mexico’s Antonio Meza at the Araneta Coliseum. While I expec...

Bleacher Talk November 18, 2007 Quiet Kids Football Scene If you’re a follower of local youth football, then you’re probably on a high right now as your read the news about the performance of Cebu’s under-15 team at the Philippine Olympic Festival. As of yesterday, they swept their group, 4-0, and are already in the semifinals which took place yesterday. A win there would mean a trip to today’s finals. That’s the good news and if there’s good, bad news won’t be far behind, right? I don’t want to describe it exactly as bad news, but let’s just call it a “concern.” I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the youth football scene has suddenly become quiet after the San Roque Festival and the Mint Sports Shop Festival held in August. Three months later and approaching Christmas, I haven’t heard of another football festival coming up, at least not officially that is. The down part about this impasse is that the very foundation which has become the source of talents for our older Under-15 and Un...

SHSJ TAKES 2ND PLACE IN ALASKA CUP The Sacred Heart School Jesuit Football Club (SHSJ FC) grabbed second place of the Boys 10 age group at the Alaska Cup Football Festival Sunday at the Alabang Country Club in Muntinlupa City. The SHSJ FC lost to Tamasak Football Club of football hotbed Barotac Nuevo Iloilo, 1-2, in a penalty shoot-out in a nail-biter of a championship game. The game ended 1-1 in regulation with Gani Fernandez scoring the first goal of the game for SHSJ FC in the first half. Tamasak, however, came back strong in the end game, scoring the equalizer with three minutes left in the game. With both teams tired after a long day of football, no other goals were scored and the championship was decided through a penalty shoot-out. The runner-up finish proved to be a memorable achievement for SHSJ FC which was making its first appearance at this annual football festival that drew teams from all over the country. SHSJ FC dominated its group in the elimination round, sweeping the ...

Bleacher Talk November 11, 2007 SHSJ on a Mission As most of us were enjoying the luxury of a double whammy long weekend last week, two teams of the Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHSJ) quietly slipped out of Cebu and headed to Bacolod to compete in the Visayas Regional Finals of the Milo BEST Basketball Tournament. The minor surprise that might have jolted students and the local Cebu basketball world enjoying the sem break was the fact that the Eagles were the ones representing Cebu at the Milo BEST Visayas Finals. SHSJ going to the regional finals hasn’t been the norm and has in fact been a first for the school. University of San Carlos (USC) North and South have always been Cebu’s representatives to this tournament as they’ve dominated the Cebu scene for the Pasarelle (13-14 years old) and SBP (12 & under) age groups for the past decade. But could there be a changing of the guard? Is it SHSJ’s time to shine? For the first time after seven years, SHSJ scored a double championship in...

La Salle Cebu Goes Bad Results! It was a Green day as the La Salle Green Team smothered the La Salle White Team to win the over-all championship of the “LA SALLE goes BAD! The 2nd President's Cup Badminton Tournament” of the One La Salle Cebu Alumni Association (OLSCAA) Relying on the undefeated run of three of its doubles teams, The Green Team outscored the White Team, 19-5, in the one-day dual meet tournament. Leading the attack was the Level B pair of Deo Dumaraos and Jason Co which was good for a perfect six points coming from two straight-set wins over their Level B counterparts. The Green’s other Level B pair of Chinky Cortez and Pepi Martinez were good for four points. Meanwhile the Green Team’s Level A pairs were good for nine points with the pair of Martin Ledesma and Dr. Leo Jiao registering five points from a straight set win and another three-set win. The other Level A pair of team captain Gerry Malixi and Gabby Cruz contributed four points to the Green’s winning cause....

Bleacher Talk October 28, 2007 Sports sa Kabataan Sports sa Kabataan. It’s admittedly not a great sounding slogan or motto, but as the country goes out to vote for their barangay chairmen, councilors and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials, I can’t help but cite the importance of the relationship between youth development and sports. It’s something that SK candidates always talk about, and they even sound as good as the veteran politicians when they promise to use sports as a tool to develop the youth. But where are all the activities from all these? Where are the sports programs, competitions, training clinics and top young prospects from all this? But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s just assume that all our SK representatives just forgot about their promises of the past. More importantly, let’s also assume that they’re honest (not corrupt) and have genuine concern for their constituents. And finally, let’s assume that they listen to unsolicited advice from the all ble...

Bleacher Talk October 21, 2007 Basketball’s Twilight Zone This time of the year in the basketball world is always the “worst” for us. Just as most of the collegiate leagues end, everything suddenly comes to a stop. After going through a high of watching the exciting championship series of the CESAFI, UAAP and NCAA, we’re suddenly left with nothing as big and as exciting. It’s the basketball year’s twilight zone when everything is relatively quiet and the natural transition of basketball action will take us from college ball and on to the commercial or pro leagues. If you take a closer look at it, the transition is very much a mirror of what takes place when the careers of college players come to a close. The most logical next step in their careers is to go one notch higher to try their luck in the commercial leagues. In a sense, this time of the year is spent for anticipating the next steps of both the basketball scene and the careers of our local collegiate stars. For starters, it’s e...