Sports Eye
Meeting my basketball contemporaries
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
I’M finally making this piece at home. Yes, despite the big opportunity that Uncle Sam could offer me to live permanently in the land of ‘milk and honey’ that millions of Filipinos are aspiring for, it’s still nice to be back home, where I was born, raised, educated and honored as a professional cyclist. There’s no place like home.
With God’s help, I came back without the deadly Influenza A(H1N1) virus. I was physically fit when I left the Philippines and came back more vigorous because my relatives (father side) in Texas and California and my close friends in Hawaii gave their best accommodations and to make me enjoy my three-week stay there in America.
It was during my week stay in Hawaii when I met my basketball contemporaries, Mariano Soriano and Carlito Capanang, with whom I played with in Guam representing the Pangasinan team in the yearly Filipino league in the 80’s. It was the 5’10” Soriano, formerly from Bugallon, who was the most prolific of all the Pangasinan boys when it came to scoring, lifting the team perennially to victories and championships. Mariano, then a respected Madis Dagupan Appliances standout, moved and successfully settled in Hawaii in 1997 and now owns a beautiful house, and runs an electrical services business in the island of Oahu.
Carlito, on the other hand, moved from Saudi Arabia to Koror, then Guam and finally to Hawaii in 1992. Carlito, with a Kapampangan mother from Mabalacat and a Pangasinense for a father from Bautista, has more than 30 years of experience as a carpenter and mason.
The two live in the city of Waipahu, a place teeming with Filipinos. This is also the home of the newly-crowned world boxing light flyweight champion, Ilocos Sur-born Brian Viloria.
Mariano is the half-brother of the father of PBA player Marlou Aquino, the Sta. Barbara-born center of Sta. Lucia Realty, who made the sports page headlines last week for allegedly attacking a spectator during the Sta. Lucia Realty-Burger King encounter. Luckily, Aquino was only fined P20,000 by commissioner Sonny Barrios.
Mariano, nicknamed ‘Nano’ by his friends, ‘Nomie’ by his relatives, said he’s planning to hold a reunion with his former teammates next April with Fred Ramos, Rey Ramos, Manny Gumawid, Gille and Urbano (not Ruben), among others. Of course, his best friend, University of Luzon head coach Renato “Jack” Vidal is at the top of his list of guests to be invited.
Carlito is also mulling the idea of meeting his basketball buddies in Pampanga and Pangasinan as well.
The two took a vacation last April and both are eager to do it again next year. And both said hopefully there would be no anarchy in the streets before the 2010 polls. Hopefully their visits push through and I’m confident that the reunions will be held at coach Vidal’s residence. Aloha!
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