YOUNG dribblers take center stage anew when the Royal Mandaya Hotel Inter-School Mini Basketball Championship kicks off on August 14 at Davao City Recreation Center.
RMH's Glenn Escandor is organizing the tournament, which will have eight teams seeing action and is being sanctioned by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) 11 headed by its director Regino "Boy" Cua.
Escandor met with Cua Friday night to finalize details of the event. Rico Biliran is the tournament commissioner, and a press launch will be staged Wednesday morning at the Royal Mandaya Hotel.
Qualified to play are those born in 1998 or aged 12 years old and below.
Cash prizes and trophies will be awarded to the top four winners. The champion will win P15,000, second P10,000, third P5,000 and fourth P2,500.
The eight invited teams will be divided in two brackets with four teams in group playing in a single round robin format in the elimination stage. The top two teams will then advance to the cross-over semifinals. The winners will vie for the crown while the losers will battle it out for third place.
"We want to discover and develop our young players here in Davao," said Escandor, whose son Francis, 11, will also be playing for the Ateneo de Davao.
The list of the teams will be finalized during the coaches' meeting on Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Royal Mandaya Hotel.
Aside from Escandor and Cua, also attending is Biliran and tournament manager Bong Gonzaga.