Friday, April 18, 2008 National Youth Team faces huge test in Seaba
WAS the huge war chest spent wisely?
The National Youth Team, the team that has been highly-talked about, being one of the recipients of the whooping P80 million aid will get a chance to prove itself as it sees action in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association Championship for Junior Men on May 1 in Malaysia.
Nokia and Tao Corporation shelled out P80 million for the National Basketball Training Center program as well as for the youth team.
The team, mentored by coach Franz Pumaren, had trained extensively. It competed with the pro players of the Philippine Basketball League and played various games abroad.
The junior squad carries a huge burden on their backs as not only do they need to prove themselves worthy of the lofty and generous financial support, but also, they need to make up for the loss of the RP seniors team, the Harbour Center Nationals, who lost the 8th Seaba Champions Cup two weeks ago to Indonesia.
Their first acid test will be against four other nations, Malaysia, whom they will take on in the opening day, Thailand, which the national team will face on May 2. They will square off with Indonesia on May 4 and will be challenging Singapore on May 5.
The team, not surprisingly, is made up mostly of players from Manila, with the exception of 6-foot-7 from Cagayan de Oro, Philip Paredes and Fil-foreginers Norbert Torres from Canada and Kyle Pascual from California.
Paredes is the only player from the South. The rest of the roster includes National Collegiate Athletic Association standouts Jerome Cruz and Jerome Ramos of Jose Rizal, Mark de Guzman of College of St. Benilde and Anton Altamirano and Nicolas Salva of San Beda. (MCB)
