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Thursday, May 27, 2004
Oyson: Here comes the NBC!
By Manuel N. Oyson Jr.
Counter punch
Before I close the chapter on Councilor-elect Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba, allow me to cite one of his ambitious projects. He is setting up a sports foundation. It will not be funded by the City Government but by a host of sponsors and benefactors who may be just too willing to bleed to support it.
The City’s help may only be minimal. But to start and keep the foundation going, fund sourcing may have to come from the private sector. He said that there are generous donors and philanthropists who can be tapped to support it because of its laudable aim and purpose. And that is to make Cebu a Mecca for sports outside of Manila.
So many sports organizations and tournaments are concentrated in the Metro Manila area, Yayoy explained, that some of them have to be spread out to the provinces.
INTERNATIONAL BASKETBALL. One such project is to hold an international basketball tournament in Cebu in the mold of the Jones Cup of Taipei. Cebu has also standard-size gyms for the purpose. Teams from other countries may be invited to come over and play against a national selection. In the months of September and October, the PBA usually takes a break.
This is the time when PBA players can devote full time and resources to a national team for a Cebu City International Basketball Cup.
He proposes to have it annually like the Jones Cup. A marketing outfit may be hired to chart the organizational and marketing aspect of such an event. On its face, the prospect is daunting but it does not faze Yayoy who feels that where there is a will there is a way. The PBA may also be asked to pitch in on a co-promotional basis. This will be on the drawing board of his sports development trust once he has taken his oath.
I wish you luck, councilor. You are the first city councilor who has talked on “international” sports as a yearly project.
On the National Basketball Conference which we discussed in an earlier column, do you know that its president is not a basketball player but a champion shooter? Of course who has not heard of the name Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla? The 39-year-old “Tac”, a many-time Asian Games medallist, has taken on a new role by heading the NBC in its maiden year. He also owns Spring Cooking Oil-Laguna basketball team, one of the eight teams entered in the NBC.
COMPLETE LINE-UP. The other contenders are Batangas, Pampanga and Baguio in the Northern Division. Comprising the Southern Division are Ozamis, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and Cebu. It opens on June 4 in Cagayan de Oro’s Xavier University with Cagayan facing Iloilo Warriors. The Cebu Coliseum will host it on June 17 with Cagayan going up against Tribo Sugbu.
NBC has given Cebu until June 30 to complete its line-up under coach Alfonso Solis.
“Cebu is a special case,” said NBC secretary-general Tito Palma on why it has extended the submission of its line-up. Tribo Subgo is made up of a combination of players from General Feeds Mega Mix and SkyGo Motors.
Solis wants to include Neil Rañeses, Nonoy Falcasantos, Marvin Ortiguera, Gilbert Castillo to present a fiercely-competitive team in the NBC. Rañeses plays in the PBL.
Solis is short of power forwards and a legitimate center.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: ” This is something new for me. but I am facing the challenge with keen interest and determination.” – NBC president “Tac” Padilla
(May 27, 2004 issue)
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