Wednesday, June 04, 2008 ‘Avoiding a Slaughter’ By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE entry of 6-foot-11 Filipino-American Gregory Slaughter to the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) opened a floodgate with the emergence of more Fil-Am players in the basketball teams for the coming 2008 season of the Cesafi.
However, because of how controversial Slaughter was, the schools are becoming more secretive of their line-up as of the moment for fear of piracy.
“Schools tend to keep mum about it because they want to keep the team intact, at least, until the season starts,” said Cesafi secretariat head Bernard Ricablanca.
Ricablanca confirmed that there are schools that beefed up their team lineup with Filipino-foreigner players, but wanted to keep things under wrap as of the moment.
“There are some of these players who are still testing the waters and not yet enrolled with the school and that is the most crucial point. Before they are enrolled, they can still be picked up by another team,” said Ricablanca, who is the athletic director of the University of Cebu.
Cesafi has a lax rules about piracy and UC suffered the brunt of it last year. It had already added Slaughter in the lineup and had him paying UC president Augusto Go a courtesy call.
A report even came out in a local paper that Slaughter was to play for UC. However, things took a twist as Slaughter joined the vaunted University of the Visayas Green Lancers.
The seven-time champion has maintained that the did not steal Slaughter from UC, but that the Fil-American himself decided to go to them.
Careful
“This year, schools are careful with their team’s ‘upgrade and additions’. They no longer go about broadcasting their new lineup,” Ricablanca added.
Ricablanca said that the craze of having Fil-foreigners in the team actually started last year. He added that schools like to have these players around because, apart from size, they boost the team’s morale.
“When your players know that they have a tall Fil-Foreigner in their midst, they tend to play better. Their playing better may be because they do not want to be
overshadowed or they are encouraged to do good,” Ricablanca said.
The 2008 season of the Cesafi will come off the wraps come August.
