Pinoy league for all ages

MANILA, Philippines - Some are chasing the PBA dream while others play for the fun of it. Because basketball is the Filipino’s favorite sport anywhere in the world, the game is what brings the Pinoy community together in San Antonio, Texas, through a league that plays two tournaments a year.

The Filipino Basketball League was established in San Antonio in 1991 by civil engineer Lyndon Duano. It took a leave of absence from 2004 to 2009 but has since been reenergized with Duano the prime mover as commissioner. In the current tournament which is coming close to the playoffs, there are nine teams – Ice, Alumni, Astig, Tigasin, Adoboyz, Snipers, Laban, Lakas and Flipsanity. More than 120 players are listed in league rosters with 14-year-old Kelvin Pescadero the youngest and 45-year-old Robert Barrientos the senior statesman.

The competition is intense even as the atmosphere is friendly. A pool of five to six referees is used for each tournament. In the regular season, games are worked by two referees and in the playoffs, by three. Each team coughs up $575 to play in a tournament with every cent earmarked to pay for gym, referees, scorers and trophies. Games are played at the Woodlawn Gym or the Jesse James Leija Gym, both in downtown San Antonio.

Duano said to be eligible, a player must be at least one-fourth Filipino but a team may recruit up to two Asian imports who could be Japanese, Chinese or Korean. Only two imports are allowed on the court for a team with one under six-feet. Tournament format is one round robin and single eliminations in the playoffs. The league pays for itself and is not for profit.

A PBA player who emerged from a youth league where Duano was involved in the 1990s was Chris Ross who is from San Antonio. Ross went to John Jay High School in San Antonio then to Panola Junior College in Carthage and McLennan Community College in Waco before transferring to Marshall University. Among the league’s current stars are Astig’s Roland Catapia, 20 and Kevin Benitez Stock, 23, Alumni’s Kailung Johnson, 27 and Chris Duano, 27, Laban’s Francis Santos, 37, Ice’s Chase Lahera, 23 and Wayne Martinez, 22 and Adoboyz’ Raymond Siao, 23. Coaches include Tigasin’s Joey Santos, Adoboyz’ Al Calavera, Laban’s Michael Bueg and Laban’s Richard Ongkiko. Calavera is a radiology technician, Bueg a nurse and Ongkiko a college professor.

“Some of our players went for tryouts in the PBL like Jonathan Caranto and Jeff Hobson,” recalled Duano. “My friend Kenneth Gatchalian played for my team in the ‘90s. I think his father is known as the Philippines’ plastics king from Valenzuela.”

The league is essentially recreational and social. Most of the coaches and players are employed in day-jobs and play mainly for fun. But a few dream of playing in the PBA.

Duano said the San Antonio league is linked to a larger Filipino basketball community that is US-wide. Austin, the Texas capital, has its own league and commissioner Rommel Corro is affiliated with the Philippine Basketball Association of North America. “We represent players from Texas in the Labor Weekend tournament held in different cities,” said Duano. “The next one will be in Windsor, Canada. We are new to this group and still building.”

Duano, 49, migrated from the Philippines to the US in 1974 and finished civil engineering at the University of Texas in San Antonio. “I love our people and culture so much that I’ve been involved with the Filipino community in San Antonio for years,” he said. “I do the Filipino Basketball League, manage a Filipino folk dance troupe with more than 30 dancers from five to 25 years old, founded the Filipino student association at the University of Texas in San Antonio, handle Filipino-American affairs in the San Antonio club and participated in the construction of the Sto. Niño Catholic Church in San Antonio. I work for the city of San Antonio as a civil engineer. San Antonio has a small town atmosphere, a big city with friendly people.”

Tom Cunanan, one of Duano’s co-organizers, said in the early years, the San Antonio league drew players from Austin, Lubbock, Dallas and Houston. Eventually, the neighboring cities started their own leagues. “There is a huge population of Filipinos in San Antonio so basketball is always a pastime for all of us,” said Cunanan, a University of the Philippines at Los Baños graduate in civil engineering in 1997. “Some of the best players who’ve gone through our league are George Tubera, Agustin David, Junie Poblete, Lee De Leon and John Crisostomo.”

Cunanan moved to Los Angeles in 2002 through an employment scholarship then relocated to San Antonio to work with an engineering consulting firm. “I decided to work in the US so that I could support my family in the Philippines and send my youngest brother to school,” he said. “I got married in 2008 and now have a four-year-old daughter. I’m a registered civil engineer in the state of Texas.”

Cunanan said the San Antonio league usually starts a tournament with a parade just like in the Philippines. “Every team has a muse,” he said. “We give out trophies for the best muse and the team with the best uniform. This year, we’ve doing two All-Star Games, one in the open category and the other for 30-and-over.”