by Moses Billacura
After comedian Big Joe teased me outside Studio Onnie at the Matina Town Square about our recent Mayor Rody-Inday Sara All-Media Basketball Tournament, Atty.Edipolo “Bal” Sarabia Jr. started talking about how impressed he was on the recent basketball stories written by former Judge Jimmy “JVQ” Quitain.
JVQ was city commissioner of the Basketball Referees Commission (Barecom) during the time of BAP president Lito Puyat. I used to visit him at the wooden Quitain Building years ago since he is just a stone’s throw away from the defunct San Pedro Express Office at Bonifacio Street.
There we talk about amateur basketball development and the improvement of referees.
Since I was just a new kid on the sportswriting block in 1992, JVQ and his aides gave me a lot of info for my stories back then. The quarreling among basketball leaders, bad officiating, complaining teams, lack of support, among others were just among the discussions during the visits.
Atty.Sarabia was particularly impressed on the old photos of outstanding players, carefully preserved by the owners like Bayani Espino who lend the photographs to JVQ for publication. There we discover the old glory of Davao basketball which we heard only by word of mouth.
JVQ finally has the time to go back to basketball story writing and I hope he won’t quite writing. Maybe, he’ll publish a book about the history of Davao basketball. What do you think sir Jimmy?
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Preparations have started for the 73rd Araw ng Dabaw Sports Festival.
Athletics, arnis, basketball, billiards, bodybuilding, bowling, boxing, chess, cycling, dama, dancesport, football, judo, karatedo, lawn tennis, sepak takraw, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, swimming, softball, volleyball are being lined-up by the sports committee chaired by Christopher “Bong” Go.
The competitions will definitely spice up the Araw festivities this month as our Davao City athletes start preparing for the summer leagues, the Davao Regional Athletic Association Meet and the Palarong Pambansa.
Local NSA leaders hope to discover new talents during the sportsfest for further training. And once they are ready, they are ready for recruitment for the national team.
I laud the dedicated coaches and trainors for taking pains in training the athletes, rain or shine. The training prepares the player to be very competitive and when the tournaments are set, that is the time that their performances are at its peak.
One afternoon, Greg (our associate editor) and I were walking along Tionko Avenue and I saw athletics coach Mamerts with some players from Holy Cross of Davao College and Emar Learning Center.
He said they just came from a practice at the Davao City National High School where a track oval is available. He said that the City High has become now the center for track and field training.
They hope that they will be able to produce more outstanding athletes and replace the old athletes. The young ones, he said, are dedicated because they look forward to a sports scholarship.
I hope that Mamerts will be able to have the full strength to train the young and dedicated athletes because one day they will have the chance to represent the City of Davao and the country to international competitions.
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William “Butch” Ramirez, the former Philippine Sports Commission chairman, was the guest of honor in the recent opening ceremony of the Blue Knight Basketball League at the Ateneo de Davao High School campus.
Ramirez is a former Ateneo de Davao management professor but left teaching and basketball coaching to join the national sports agency in 2000.
But after the stint in the PSC, that included helping the country win the over-all title of the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, Ramirez is back home to focus his energies in the Sports for Peace Mindanao.
The Ateneo community has not forgotten the contributions made by Butch Ramirez to Philippine sports like the improvement of the athlete’s quarters, increase of allowances, better equipment and more foreign exposure for them as well as sports education linkages with sports superpowers.
