Sports Eye
Basketball season once again
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
THE commencement of the 2011 PRISAA-UCAAP Inter-Collegiate Basketball Championship has been moved to July 27 from July 25.
The annual cagefest, exclusively for tertiary students, had Dagupan City hizzoner Benjie S. Lim as sponsor last year. It found a new patron this season in the person of the energetic and sports-minded father of the province, Gov. Amado T. Espino, Jr. The competition was strongly endorsed by Modesto Operania, the province sports coordinator. The governor himself will be the guest of honor and speaker while BSL will give the opening remarks, according to the league’s secretary-general, my partner Phil Celi. Seato Gonimil, treasurer of the league, assured me that seven teams had already confirmed their participation, spearheaded by the defending champion University of Luzon (UL).
The opening was moved because July 25 will be the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of president PNoy and I believe the hardworking Gov. Espino will attend the SONA in Manila. So it’s necessary to postpone the opening so we can all listen to what PNoy has to report after one year of leading the country. I also hope to hear from him any plan (in case there is) about our deteriorating sports development in the amateur category. The persistent drop in our athletes’ performance is primarily caused by our national sports leaders’ power-squabbles, especially in the national associations of swimming, equestrian, cycling, badminton to name a few. Yes, our unmarried chief is also fond of sports like shooting, car racing and biking, so hopefully he will give due attention to the sports sector.
I had chitchat with Angel C. Gumarang last Thursday and we talked about the prospect of his new team, the LNU Dukes, in the coming hostilities. Gumarang, who used to steer the UPang Webczars and wrested the championship crown in 2005 from UL, describes his squad as a mixture of veteran and greenhorn players with his three marquee players, namely Michael Indoy, Benjie Labitoria and Linnel Manalo, now ineligible to play because of the prescribed limit of only up to seven years to play. That’s his lament.
“Lack of cog is not lack of confidence,” said Gumarang, “Although we lack exposure and experience, our team is not fundamentally shorthanded in heart. We’ll try to be on the top four first and later think about the finals if we’re lucky to enter the semis.”
Gumarang initiated a ‘goodwill games’ on July 18, to be held at the LNU gym, to sharpen the skills of his boys and to weigh their aptitude. They will be pitted against the Cordillera Career Development College of Baguio City in the second and final game of the day. The first match will be PIMSAT versus UP Baguio at 1 p.m. Let’s go there and watch them.
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My congrats to my son Jazy for winning the TakeCare Summer Race in Guam last Sunday. Reports from one of Guam’s newspapers say that the 37.5-mile bikefest (approximately 60 kilometers) is one of the three races that the Guam Cycling Federation organized this year. The same paper said the Mangaldan-born Jazy, who celebrated his birthday July 14, outsprinted his two Yankee breakaway partners, Peter Lombard and Mark Walters, in the last 200 meters to clinch the title. The final and last race will be on July 24. Unfortunately, Jazy can’t attend the event as he’s enplaning to California and Texas on July 18 with his family to visit relatives. But at least he has shown again in a different land that we, Pangasinenses, could shine in this two-wheeled discipline.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring the forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. PSLAM 19: 7-9
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