by Moses Billacura
The Jr. NBA Program is expanding to Davao City, this according to Christopher “Bong” Go, Mayor Duterte’s executive assistant, who said that the Program’s Debbie Tolentino had announced the good news.
Debbie said they were able to send six players, aged 12 to 14 years, to the U.S. for an NBA Exposure Program after a thorough selection in Luzon and the Visayas last year. This year, NBA Asia officials have decided to come to Davao and look for more talents.
The Ateneo de Davao High School basketball facility in Matina is a perfect venue for next year’s coaches’ clinic, players’ selection and seminar.
We hope that our friends from Ateneo will be able to help the Jr.NBA facilitators get a booking and Ateneo de Davao High School becomes a partner in this very beautiful program.
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The Aquatic Sports Association of the Philippines (ASAP) was recently formed in Manila and a published report said that Darren Evangelista is regional director for Davao.
The ASAP is of course not the national sports association for swimming under the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), but it has taken a role that will support the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association 11 (PASA-11) which is headed by regional director Deedee Gonzalez.
Darren said in the report that he will be taking the assignment seriously by setting up a swimming program in Mindanao designed to produce champions like Amman Jalmaani, Leroy Goff and Jairullah Jaitullah.
Darren, president of the Evangelista Aquatics and Sports Management Inc., said that there is no Mindanao grassroots program launched since the retirement of the Mindanao Asian Gamers and Olympians in the 1960s and 70s.
This is a big task Darren, and we wish you the best.
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I find the emergence of the ASAP as a good development to partner with PASA. ASAP’s efforts will bear fruit once their swimmers are recommended by PASA for membership in the national development pool and eventually as regular members of the RP squad.
But I expect PASA officers also to reach out to ASAP officials in order to unify their sports development efforts to produce top-caliber swimmers.
I hope to see Darren and Deedee sit down to discuss what is best for the development of the sport.
