R.P. Women?s Basketball Team Shoot for SEAG Gold
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 29 Oct 2011
With no less than sports ?Godfather,? businessman-sportsman Manny V. Pangilinan lending support, the chances of the country winning its first ever women?s basketball gold medal look better than before in the upcoming 26th Southeast Asian Games cage war in Indonesia 15 days from now.
This, the Filipina cagebelles themselves and their coaches vowed to do during yesterday?s episode of the SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura .
?Yes, we never had these bright chances in last the 13 times we took part in in the SEA Games and we, certainly, will take advantage of the opportunity to present our country its first championship since 1977,? Coach Haydee Ong said during the forum, sponsored by Coca Cola Export, FILA, TV 5 and UNTV.
Pangilinan, MVP IN the sports and business sectors, actually volunteered to fund the Filipina basketball belles? Indonesian campaign as well as few other sports after the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission SEA Games committee initially recommended the scrapping of their participation for lack of funds.
?We owe it to Mr. Pangilinan that we will be able to join the national delegation, so we might as well do everything to bring home that elusive gold another national team narrowly missed,? Ong told her audience in reference to the 1995 side which won the silver medal in the resort City of Chiangmai in Thailand.
Assistant coaches Gina Francisco, herself a former Phi team member, and Ron Camara, co-captains Cassandra Tioseco and Joan Grajales and the other members of the team. Christened ?Discover Perlas,? echoed Ong?s sentiment.
They are Diane Jose, Aurora Adriano, Melissa Jacob, Ewon Arayi, Angeli Gloriani, Chovi Borja, Ambie Almazan, Karen Lomogda, Len Flormata, Treena Limgenco, Bernie Mercado and Matt. Gadian.
All, except Almazan, Lomogda, Flormata and Limgenco are members of the tam anta wept the Southeast Asian Basketball Association and the MVP Cup held last year and the four-nation Invitationals held in Bacolod early this year. Mercado and Gadian are alternates.
Francisco, daughter of basketball legend Ben Francisco, member of the PHI team that ended up third in the 1954 world championship in Brazil and former UST athletic director Felicitas Francisco, said winning the SEABA and the MVP Cup are testimonials of the Discovery Perlas? potentials.
?They said the SWEABA and the MVP championships were Philippine women?s basketball first triumphs in the international field, so maybe those will also serve as a signal that the sport has really come of age in this country,? the Fil-Canadian Tioseco, who at 6-foot-flat plays center along with Flormata, 6-1, said.
A brief training stint in China, courtesy of Discovery Suite owner and team manager Cynthia Tiu, is also hoped to provide the Discovery Perlas the international exposure they need.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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