Sunday, October 15, 2006 Pages: La Sallians are good at playing bad By John Pages Match point
GREEN. That’s my favorite color. Visit the office and stare at the four walls of my room. You’ll find one color. Same with my bedroom. Gaze from floor to ceiling and you’ll notice one shade.
My overused Nike T-shirts? The home cordless phone? Flashlight? Our sofa? My car plate number? (Ha-ha. As if yours isn’t.) Even in our family business, we squeeze out fruits of the same color as those leaves overlooking my window.
Why green? Blame it on one institution that has molded me more than any other school or building or playground. It’s named La Salle.
Looking back, my best years were spent at a sprawling, all-boys, sports-crazy campus in Bacolod City. From Grade 1 until First Year High School, I arose before 6 a.m., boarded the brown Econovan school bus, and arrived to face a forest of green trees.
Each day, I awoke so excited that I didn’t call it “school.” It was fun. La Salle was fun.
Last weekend, a Saturday morning, the skies were painted blue, like Ateneo, and the sun shone as bright a yellow as UST. But when I stepped inside MetroSports in Lahug, the blue had faded and the yellow had vanished.
Everything transformed into another color. The 12 Taraflex courts, the windbreakers hanging from the rafters, the walls that surrounded the complex, even the garbage bins that littered all around-they wore green.
Dondi Joseph wore green. As president of the De La Salle Alumni Association-Cebu Chapter, he is officially mandated to wear no other color. Dondi grabbed the microphone and welcomed the crowd to the event named in his honor, “The 1st President’s Badminton Cup.”
“Have fun,” Dondi said. “Make friends... and enjoy the games.”
We did. We served the feathers, smashed them to the lines. We cheered, umpired ourselves, and pumped fists to our chests. We erupted in laughter.
Organized by Martin Ledesma and Cholo Verches-two badminton fanatics-the whole Saturday morning aimed to accomplish two things: For badminton enthusiasts to wear green; and for those wearing green to play badminton. (Translation: Good or bad, go ahead and play!) It also didn’t matter if you studied along Taft Ave., in Bacolod, or at ASMS during the Atlas Mining heydays in Toledo. As long as you asked for the intercession of St. John Baptist de La Salle, you were eligible.
Dave Karamihan, a graduate of DLSU never-mind-how-many-Aprils-ago, played the first game. Dave is a standout. He stands. And, when his racket hits the shuttlecock, it’s out.
But Dave was ecstatic. When the score reached 5-4 in favor of him and his partner Raymund Fernandez, he stopped. “Game over!” he screamed. “We won!” He declared the match over and extended his hand for the opponent to congratulate him.
Dave, of course, was joking. Everybody joked. Everybody laughed. Every body ached. Literally. From 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., three courts were filled with players who swatted rackets and sprinted for drop shots and sweated until the court filled like a pool.
I belonged to Team A. Captained by Norman Roa, my teammates were Ogie Laranas, Deo Dumaraos, Dave and Raymund. Norman Roa and Ogie Laranas were our Class-A players and they didn’t disappoint, winning all of their matches.
Dave Karamihan and Raymund were another story, they lost all.
Deo Dumaraos and myself? We played thrice and each time, faced a mixed doubles pairing. Two men against a man-and-a-woman? Of course, we’d win! Right? Wrong. We lost. All three times. First to Klifford Moleta and Chinky Cortes, next to Cholo Verches and Malou Peralta, and third to Leo Jiao and Ethel Chuachoy.
Who else played? Gerry Malixi, the captain of Team C. He’s one of the funniest guys you’ll meet in town-if you’re pro-La Salle.
But if you’re blue and called Katipunan Ave. your home in college-he’s an enemy sighted. Nobody recites more hilarious stories than Gerry. (On the other side of the camp, you’ve got to hear Jourdan Polotan. I swear: he’ll flex his muscles and die for Ateneo.)
The best player among all? Monching Aquino, the team captain of Team B. Monching teamed up with Leandro Diaz to beat Gerry Malixi and Leo Jiao in the finals. Bobby Martinez, Paolo Porquez, Amiel del Castillo, and Desi Arana strutted their talents-all Men In Green.
Later that night, we trooped to Darras + Bowler, the cozy Banilad restaurant of Dondi Joseph. We drank wine, chewed on French cuisine and the Chinese Mooncake, and exchanged jokes. Lots of jokes. One of which went: it’s a pity the other guys were given a chance to win this year. Unfortunately, they “blue” it.
