The Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) officially unveiled the St. John De Brebeuf Strength, Conditioning and Rehabilitation Facility for its student-athletes on Sunday, July 23, in a small blessing and opening ceremony at its campus in Mandaue City.
A handful of generous alumni, through the Sacred Heart Ateneo Alumni Basketball Athletic Association (SHAABAA), led by its chairman Afshin Ghassemi and Franco Soberano, along with fellow alumni Dave Ting, Joseph Lo, Chase Cokaliong, Edmund Gaisano Jr., Regan King and Jason Arquisola were able to raise funds to build the facility.
“It’s really our responsibility as alumni to give back to our school because we owe a lot to them, for our values and even our skills. High school has been one of the best parts of my life. I have very vivid memories of high school and I have a very soft heart for Sacred Heart. I’ve been trying to inspire others to give back and thankfully with the help of other alumni, we were able to come up with a big amount of money to be able to build this very beautiful gym,” said Ghassemi. “The alumni will always be there behind the school, will always be there to support the school and will always be there to give back.”
The alumni were able to raise the funds through their pockets from a three-point shootout in last year’s SHAABAA All-Star. They were able to raise a total of P1.5 million.
“This was really the idea of the Alumni Association, particularly the SHAABAA CEO Alumni. So there were top businessmen in Cebu who joined the All-Star game last year. After every miss during the three-point shootout, we donate a certain amount for a good cause. We missed a lot of those shots that’s why we gathered a lot. We realized we could use the money for a very good cause and give it back to our school. We found that we had a big need for a conditioning and rehab facility. Rehab conditioning is sometimes underestimated or taken for granted, so we invested this P3.5 million rehab and condition facility for our top athletes and one of the best high school basketball teams in the country. They need this,” said Soberano.
They were also able to get some donors from different companies—Cebu Landmasters, Soberano Ventures, Inc., Radius One, Graphic Star, Landlite Philippines Corporation, Vic Enterprises Mechaire Inc., Kintar Power, Daikin and Gesalem Design Centre—for a total of P3.5 million.
The St. John De Brebeuf Strength, Conditioning and Rehabilitation Facility is equipped with high-end strength and conditioning training equipment.
It also has two rooms for physical rehabilitation.
“The school is very thankful. The strength and conditioning part is sometimes overlooked. This is one of the most important aspects of any athlete. We are very thankful for that. I’m a PT by profession, specializing in sports and conditioning and this is really one of my projects. I’m happy for our athletes that we already have this really good facilty where they can train and where we can treat them (injuries) and handle them,” said SHS-AdC athletic director Jon Ynot.