Bleacher Talk

Bleacher Talk November 2, 2008 Life After Death Yes, you read it right. Today’s topic is about life after death. After all, today is All Souls’ Day when we’re all encouraged to pray for all those who have moved on in life. We wish them well and that they all join our Creator in heaven in their life after death “careers.” But did you know that in sports, we also have a life after death situation for all athletes? But before you think of anything else, this is not about athletes dying per se, although we’ll all pass away in life. But if you look at it closely, athletes somehow “die” when their careers are over and need to do something productive for the rest of their lives, their lives after “athletic death.” One of the most interesting aspects of one’s career as an athlete is the so-called “what’s next” phase when his or her professional or sporting career is over. We hear so much about how athletes are at the peak or prime of their careers; how somehow their on top of the world and can...

Bleacher Talk October 26, 2008 CESAFI: Going Beyond Basketball Now that all the talk about the CESAFI basketball season has ended, it’s time to make an assessment of the season that just passed. Even if the tournament is already over, many questions still remain. Some are valid, and others are downright stupid. But the most valid question will always remain, “How can the CESAFI continue to boost its stock as the top collegiate league outside of Manila?” Like any product being sold in the commercial market, the CESAFI is more than just a basketball tournament. It’s the most unique basketball experience in Cebu whose influence and reach have taken it beyond the level of just being a mere game being played among eight basketball teams. It’s from this angle that we’ll take a peak at the CESAFI 2008 basketball season. On top of being a basketball tournament being played, it’s a brand with its own personality. It’s already a permanent fixture that’s intertwined with Cebu Basketball and can b...

Bleacher Talk October 19, 2008 Cebu Basketball on the Rebound The signs are of Cebu Basketball are indeed looking good. A quick review of what has happened since June is a good indicator of how far we’ve gone and how much more we can do in the future. The hands-down biggest story of local basketball would have to be the CESAFI 2008 season that topped all previous CESAFI basketball tournaments. The University of the Visayas (UV) Lancers won its eighth straight championship before full-house crowds through all four games of the series. The crowds were louder, rowdier and wilder this year, thanks primarily to the more balanced competition especially among the top five teams of the league. The UV-USC semifinals series and more elimination round games also filled up the Cebu Coliseum, something the league or Cebu as a whole hasn’t seen in a long time. The finals was such a hit that scalpers and makers of fake tickets made a killing. Greg Slaughter and Junmar Fajardo literally stood tall in ...

A Championship that Slipped Away One of the saddest parts of the CESAFI Championship series is how some just can’t seem to accept that UV won its eighth straight championship over USJR. Their top-of-mind reason is that the refs were behind UV’s championship. I think this is getting a bit too far. It’s rather odd that no credit is given to the Lancers and what they did to win the title. It’s as if the title was given to them on a silver platter. Don’t get me wrong. This corner bleeds for the Jaguars since they were considered as title favorites before the season started. The league could’ve benefited more if it had a CESAFI champion outside of the Lancers. But as they say in any sport, to win a championship, one has to literally take away the championship belt from the champion’s waist. And it won’t be easy as it’s tightly sealed, locked and well-defended. In USJR’s case, they just didn’t do enough to take that belt away. I think it’s best that we set aside discussions about the referee...

On to Bacolod for USC NC, SHSJ It’s on to Bacolod for the University of San Carlos North Campus (USC NC) and the Sacred Heart School Jesuit (SHSJ) as they topped the Small Basketeers Philippines (SBP) and Passerelle divisions, respectively, of the Cebu Milo BEST SBP/Passerelle twin basketball tournament over the weekend at the jam-packed Capitol Parish Gym. The Baby Warriors erased the stigma of finishing second last year by beating Don Bosco, 44-36, in the SBP division. The SHSJ Eagles won their first ever back-to-back championship in the history of the tournament with a nail-biting win over USC NC, 68-65. The SBP championship game was a nip and tuck affair through the first three quarters, with USC NC controlling the firs half, and Don Bosco dominating the third. USC NC enjoyed an 18-10 lead at the half, but Don Bosco came back to slice the lead to only one at 25-24, at the end of the third period. Don Bosco controlled the momentum at the start of the fourth quarter, taking a 30-28 l...

USC NC in Milo BEST Finals The University of San Carlos North Campus (USC NC) sent a message that they’re back as a serious contender in youth basketball by barging into the finals of both the SBP and Passerelle divisions of the Milo BEST SBP/Passerelle twin tournament Wednesday at the Capitol Parish Gym. USC NC nipped the University of Cebu (UC), 66-64 in overtime to arrange a showdown with defending champions Sacred Heart School-Jesuit in the Passerelle division, while their younger counterparts defeated sister school USC South Campus, 47-39, in the SBP division. The Baby Warriors leaned on the clutch performance of Michael Rita in overtime to fend off a fighting UC squad. With the score tied at 59-all, Harvey Palapar calmly sank two free throws for a 61-59 lead. After a UC turnover, Rita took over by adding a drive to up the lead to four, 63-59. He then added three more free throws to ice the game. Ahlen Kikuchi led USC with 13 points, followed by Rita’s 11. In the other Passerelle ...

Milo BEST SBP / Passerelle Twin Basketball Tournament Cebu Leg Results from Day 6: Final 4 Cast Clears Up The Final Four cast is just about set in the BEST Center SBP/Passerelle twin tournament after last weekend’s games at the Don Bosco campus. In the SBP division, Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHSJ) and the University of San Carlos North Campus (USC NC) recorded a sweep of their elimination round games to grab the top spot in their respective groups. The defending champions SHSJ Eagles used a third quarter spurt to outlast USC South Campus, 39-26. USC North overcame an undermanned but fighting Don Bosco-A squad in scoring a 36-27 win. The Eagles (3-0) will face Don Bosco-A (2-1) in the cross-over semifinals while USC NC (3-0) goes up against sister school USC South (2-1) in the other match-up. In the Passerelle division, SHSJ scored its fifth straight win over an upset-conscious USC NC-B squad, 45-33, to take solo leadership of Group A over idle University of Cebu (UC). With the win, S...

THE Rivalry: La Salle & Ateneo It’s mad, out of this world and on a level of its own. It’s THE rivalry of Philippine sports that’s followed by both sports fans and non-sports fans alike. As one of Ateneo’s staunchest sponsors might say, “It’s simply amazing.” At 4pm today, all eyes of the sports world will be focused on Game 1 of the UAAP finals between De La Salle University (DLSU or La Salle) and Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU). While it may sound just like one of those ordinary college match-ups, we all know how it has gone well beyond the student-led cheers for the green and the blue. But where do we start when talking about THE rivalry that will most likely never be matched in local sports history? Its followers? Incredible! For a rivalry between two schools, it’s amazing how fans and loyal supporters have ranged from the youngest students at the various La Salle and Ateneo grade schools, to high school and college students. But that’s not it. The louder and even more suppo...

Daytime Boxing Morning na sir. Boxing na ta. Sound familiar? I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t. As many of you were either at Mass, sipping your cup of coffee, having a quiet breakfast with the family or still sleeping on a lazy Sunday morning, boxing was abuzz at the Cebu Coliseum for Cebu’s first-ever Sunday morning boxing. Yes, the presence of scalpers and vendors in front of the Cebu Coliseum meant that there was something taking place, and it wasn’t a Mass or a religious gathering. When will he stop coming up with gimmicks such as these? “He” of course is SGG or Sammy Gello-ani whose boxing endeavors have suddenly given the boxing family a welcome and added spice with more avenues for young prospects to shine and prove their stuff. And doing things a little differently has been the angle that SGG has taken thus far. Aside from going to Mindanao to tap fresh talents and also doing daytime boxing in Zamboanga, he’s also back in Cebu for another round of innovations: daytime boxi...

Bleacher Talk August 31, 2008 Youth Basketball With your permission, I’d like to write about something that is close to our hearts, not only since we’re an advocate for it, but more importantly since we’re now directly involved in it. I usually don’t write about the sports events that we manage, but this will have to be an exception to the rule. We have been given the challenge to manage the BEST Center’s SBP/Passerelle twin tournament starting this year, and with much reluctance and hesitation, we decided to accept the challenge for the purpose of helping in the development of school-based basketball for the youth. As an advocate, we’ve always written and talked about it, but the guilty part of it is how we never really back up our words with action. And so here we are facing the challenge of not only talking, but also doing our share of “walk the talk.” It seems like only yesterday when the first youth-based tournament organized by Bleacher Talk just ended. The Cebu Youth Basketball ...

We are pleased to "announce" that the SHSJ Football Club (Team SHSJ-Spain) won the Under 8 age group championship at the San Roque Cup Football Festival last Saturday, Aug. 22. We defeated San Roque, 1-0 in the finals, scoring the game-winning goal with around two minutes left in the game. Earlier in the semis, we defeated Don Bosco, via penalty shoot-out, 2-1. We went 4-0 in the elimination round to qualify for the playoffs. Congratulations to the team, and let's move on to continue strengthening the foundation of the club for the future. (L-R): MVP Kyle Go, Carlos Berlin, Leo Macquiling, Roland Mattsen, Mico Lee, Jan Momongan, Coach Nito Tapia.

Bleacher Talk August 10, 2008 Olympics: Pinoy as Spectators Did you see the beautiful opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics? How did you feel when you saw all those athletes, performers and politicians waving flags and showing off their million dollar smiles? Did you feel proud when you saw Manny Pacquiao leading the Philippine team, proudly carrying the Philippine flag? How did you feel about Asia’s hosting an Olympic Games? It happens every four years, and each time, a host city is always on a mission to outdo all the previous hosts in the history of the Olympics. The same is true for the countries and the athletes who are out to prove that they’re the best in the world in their respective sports events. So many storylines can be drawn each time the Olympics is held, and all of these reflect dramatic stories carrying a theme to always do better than the past. Michael Phelps is chasing Mark Spitz. In gymnastics, the Americans are out to prove that they can defeat the Chinese at t...

Bleacher Talk August 3, 2008 CESAFI @ 8 The biggest basketball show in Cebu is back and it’s going to be even better! The CESAFI 2008 basketball tournament kicked off yesterday with the traditional opening ceremonies, but when the action starts, only one question will be asked. Will the University of the Visayas (UV) win an eighth straight championship? The million dollar question will be highlighted even more this year as the Lancers are perceived to be fielding what could be one of their weakest line-ups in seven years of the CESAFI. This season is already being predicted to be the most competitive and balanced in terms of competition. The irony of it all is that the Lancers are still the team to beat from the perspective of most CESAFI coaches. But if you look at the past three or four years of the biggest collegiate league south of Manila, you can’t help but notice how the invincibility that the Lancers carried with them is slowly but surely being torn down. In CESAFI 2007, the Uni...

Bleacher Talk July 25, 2008 Making a World Title Fight 2 The headline for today will have to be copied from that of three weeks ago as a minor bump on the road surfaced on AJ “Bazooka” Banal’s path to a world championship. If my forecast is right, AJ Banal won the WBA super flyweight championship last night by knock-out in the middle rounds just as we were going into press for today’s issue. If Rafa Concepcion didn’t change his style from that which we saw from a previous fight, then Banal will tear him up real bad. Concepcion is called “El Torito” or little bull since he fights like a bull, always going forward and not afraid to get hit. He uses his power to get the job done and is not known to be a technical type of a boxer with finesse and classy moves. This type of boxer is a perfect match for Banal’s combination of excellent boxing skills, power and ring maturity. Concepcion comes at you with his punches coming from wild angles via hooks and overhand rights. His jab looks more lik...

Bleacher Talk July 20, 2008 Shortcut to Vegas We’ve all heard about the lights, glitz and glamour of Vegas, but how many of us have actually been there? We all have our personal reasons to go there, and so do the many local blue chip prospects of boxing who are aching to set foot on the of boxing capital of the world. Thanks to Manny Pacquiao, Philippine boxing is now recognized as a good source of world-class boxers, and the international boxing market is now in search of more Pinoys who can light up the rings of Vegas. But how does one get there? Through the years of Philippine boxing, the traditional and usual way of doing things was to go for a Philippine championship. A national championship automatically meant being rated by the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) that also serves as the regional arm of the World Boxing Council (WBC). A boxer would then have to win an OPBF championship if he wanted to be recognized by the WBC or any of the other international boxing bod...

CEIV poses with their trophy. Edmund, Roy, Venci, Atan, Brigs, Jun,Moncabs, Allan, Jojo, Buchoy Atan splits between Bong & Raul to score inside... Edmund receives trophy from Venci. Jojo scores inside. Bong boxes out

CEIV Wins Mondays Liga Cebu Engineering and Industrial Ventures (CEIV) blew hot and cold before toppling top seed Team Monterroyo, 52-47, to bag the championship of the Mondays Liga 2008. CEIV leaned on the hot hands of Edmund Odulio in the first quarter to control the tempo of the game, taking an 18-7 lead going into the second period. CEIV maintained control of the game to take a 33-19 lead at halftime, this time with Roy Aznar leading the charges of City of Naga Councilor Venci del Mar. Team Monterroyo, however, had other things in mind as they staged a rally, bouncing back in the third quarter with Bong Paculaba stepping up, slashing CEIV’s lead down to 39-31 after three periods. Team Monterroyo’s steady rally continued in the fourth quarter as they managed to control the tempo of the game and gained the much-needed momentum with Eric Nepomuceno at the helm. Team Monterroyo cut the lead down to only three at 47-50, with 22 seconds left in the game, but then went blank with their tr...

Bleacher Talk July 12, 2008 A Fraction of F1 Driving a Formula 1 race car in our lifetime is already accepted as an impossible dream. We’re resigned to watching the races on TV and can only stare in awe at the speed, skills and all the fanfare that comes along with F1 racing. But feeling like an F1 driver for a day isn’t too far-fetched now, is it? If you want to feel like an F1 race car driver, go to Kartzone in Panagdait and you’ll know what I mean. In our drive to know more about the events that we cover and read about, the Sportswriters Association of Cebu City Inc. got a feel of kart racing or karting, thanks to Atty. Jess Garcia. The main objective of Bleacher Talk was to relate with what F1 TV commentators talk about when they analyze a live race. One thing is to hear and listen to the analysis, but doing it is a totally enriching thing as we found out at Kartzone. I’ve had the chance to connect both TV analysis and an actual game experience in events such as basketball, badmint...

Team Monterroyo, CEIV in Finals of Mondays Liga Team Monterroyo and Cebu Engineering and Industrial Ventures (CEIV) squeezed themselves into the finals of the Mondays Liga 2008 with heart-stopping wins on the last day of the tournament’s double-round robin elimination phase. Team Monterroyo nipped LCP Garments, 58-56 in overtime, while CEIV bowed to Team-C 62-65, but made it to the finals via the quotient based tiebreaker. In what turned out as a repeat of its first round game which was decided also in overtime, Team Monterroyo banked on its torrid three-point shooting and excellent field goal shooting to outlast an undermanned LCP squad. John Tantay stepped up in crunch time, scoring all his treys in the fourth quarter and overtime just as LCP seemed to grab the momentum. With LCP up by one 52-51, Tantay swished a trey to give Monterroyo a 54-52 lead with 26 seconds left in the game. Mario Camingao however replied with his medium range jumper with 12 seconds left to send the game into...

Bleacher Talk July 6, 2008 Making a World Title Fight I‘ve always been curious of how Pinoy boxers get that much-sought after chance to fight in a world championship and end up living up to the dreams that they made when they were young upstarts. Some have been there, while some haven’t. There are even talks of how many Pinoy boxers who have the legitimate potential to become world champions never even get a chance to challenge for a world championship fight due to a number of forces beyond their control: politics, breaks and at times, plain luck. But times today have changed ever since a boxer named Manny Pacquiao stepped up to the plate to deliver a homerun for Philippine boxing. Ever since Pacquiao scored a major breakthrough, Pinoy boxing is now on the map and is getting the attention of the international boxing scene. Nonito Donaire, Donnie Nietes and Florante Condes proudly carried the colors of the country when they won their world championships, while the recent forays of Berna...