Lhuillier back in hoops

There isn’t anything Jean Henri Lhuillier wouldn’t do for sports if it’s within his capabilities. His love for sports is an inspiration. Somehow, Lhuillier finds or makes time to play in his busy schedule as president and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier, the country’s largest pawn-brokering company with more than 4,000 employees serving 30,000 customers a day in over 1,200 branches all around the country.

Lhuillier, 41, has business interests in various fields. He’s into education, insurance, resorts, real estate and venture capital projects. The passion he shows in managing his businesses is the same passion he displays as an athlete and sports leader.

Not too many know that Lhuillier earned a spot the hard way on the NCAA Division I tennis team of his alma mater, St. Mary’s College, a La Salle school in Moraga, California. Lhuillier was a walk-on and impressed the coaches in tryouts to wind up with the varsity for two years. St. Mary’s, incidentally, was the same school where former Alaska import Diamon Simpson and Talk ‘N’ Text center Ali Peek played varsity basketball. During his student years, Lhuillier found himself playing tennis, soccer, basketball and baseball. He had a consuming love affair with sports.

When Lhuillier returned to the Philippines to run the family business in 1994, sports remained a major part of his focus. He put up the Cebu Gems in the MBA and the Cebuana Lhuillier flagship team in the PBL. He joined the national slo-pitch softball team and became the president of the Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines, a national sports association recognized by the Philippine Olympic Committee. He took over as manager of the Philippine Davis Cup tennis squad and has been its chief backer the last 15 ties.

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“We’re here to assist athletes the best way we can,” said Lhuillier. “Our national athletes sacrifice a lot to give honor and glory to our country. I know what an athlete’s life is like. That’s why we’re encouraging athletes to touch base with us, to reach out. We’ll try to find a way to help. Obviously, we won’t be able to help everyone because our resources are limited. But if there’s something positive we can do to boost an athlete’s morale, we’ll do it. Just recently, we helped out an athlete in bodybuilding, a sport that’s not in our core list of interests, but we still managed to come across.”

It’s not coincidental that Lhuillier fell in love with an athlete, Bea Lucero. They’ve been married 13 years and they’re blessed with four children, the oldest is 10 and the youngest, nine months old. His oldest child is now playing tennis, golf and soccer.

“I’m very proud of Bea,” said Lhuillier. “She won a bronze medal for our country when taekwondo was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. You can’t beat that for an achievement. It’s a real inspiration and motivator. Every year, we sponsor the Bea Lucero Cup, a gymnastics competition for kids, as a way to keep alive her devotion to the sport. We also support taekwondo.”

Lhuillier said he’d like nothing better than for the Philippines to bag a gold medal at the Olympics. It’s never been done. “I hope to see more government support for sports, particularly in grassroots development,” said Lhuillier. “Right now, we’ve got the perfect set-up with the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission seeing eye-to-eye. It’s all about proper channelling of funds, setting up priorities and working towards achieving a goal. Our medal chances hinge on sports with weight categories like boxing, taekwondo and weightlifting. I don’t think we’ll ever win a medal in basketball although to make it back to the Olympics in the game would already be a huge achievement. It’s difficult to win in a team sport because of limited funds so it’s easier to develop potential medalists in individual events. But we’re not shutting the door on softball, for instance, that might make a comeback to the Olympics or even doubles in tennis, ladies, men or mixed. You’ll never know. If we try hard enough, maybe we can do it.”

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Lhuillier said the Philippines is a softball powerhouse in Asia and hopes to hit paydirt in the Southeast Asian Games.

“I think softball is the only sport where the Philippines was invited to play in the world championships,” said Lhuillier. “We beat teams like Mexico and England in the World Cup last year. We finished 10th and were the highest Asian placer after runner-up Japan. Our men’s team was fifth in the Asian Games and would’ve bagged the bronze if we didn’t lose to Korea by a run in extra innings. We’ve got a lot of events lined up this year, our fast-pitch programs for kids, two major national tournaments and our participation in slo-pitch international competitions where we dominate in Asia. In tennis, our dream is to develop a world-class player, someone who can win the NCAA singles title or be a contender in Division I. We have tennis patrons like Oscar Hilado and Romy Chan to thank for trying to make that dream come true with Niño Alcantara. We’ve also got a tremendous junior talent in Jeson Patrombon. In the Davis Cup, we hope to bring over Marc Sieber to play for our team in the near future. We’ve also been involved with the USPTA the last five years, educating tennis coaches.”

In basketball, Lhuillier said the timing is not right to join the PBA but he’s excited about participating in the D-League with the Cebuana Lhuillier Gems under coach Luigi Trillo.

“The D-League is a platform for rising stars to develop their skills preparatory to moving into the pros,” said Lhuillier. “That’s where we’d like to be at the moment. We want to be in a position to assist players make their dreams come true. We used to sponsor teams in the MBA and PBL. Now, we’re back in basketball.”

The Gems’ lineup consists of PBA veterans Benedict Fernandez, Vaughn Canta and Kelvin Gregorio (recently sidelined with an ACL injury), UCLA guard Matt Lee, Fil-Am A. J. Mandani, Louie Alas’ son Kevin, Allein Maliksi, Ariel Mepana, 2009 first round draft pick James Sena, Hyram Bagatsing, Marvin Hayes, Pari Llagas, Kelly Nabong and Alwin Elinon.