SBP Passerelle National Finals

Can the Metro Manila champions La Salle Greenhills SBP and National University Passerelle teams be stopped? This is the big question being asked at the national finals of the 33rd SBP Passerelle Twin Tournament backed by Milo that’s taking place over the weekend at the University of the Assumption in the City of San Fernando in Pampanga. This annual two-day national finals is the icing of a season that started last July in the different local tournaments, led to the regional championships across the country and on to the nationals.

Up for grabs are bragging rights as national champions of the Small Basketeers Philippines (SBP) and Passerelle divisions. The SBP division is for teams in the Under 12, 11 and 10 age groups, while the Passerelle division is for the Under 15,14 and 13 age groups. These are the formative years of basketball players who will later try out for their respective high school teams. Battling for SBP supremacy are three-peat champions La Salle Greenhills from NCR, Luzon champion International School for Better Beginnings (ISBB) of Lucena, Mindanao champion Corpus Christi School of Cagayan de Oro and Cebu’s University of the Visayas, representing the Visayas. Their counterparts in the Passerelle division are heavy favorites National University of NCR, ISBB of Lucena, Corpus Christi School of Mindanao and St. Robert’s International Academy of Iloilo, representing the Visayas. A few surprises and the expected were the highlights of Day 1. UV nearly scored a huge upset when they lost to La Salle Greenhills, 50-53. They actually had a chance to win the game, but were called for a five-second inbound violation while down 50-51, and less than a minute left in the game. A basket could’ve won the game for UV, but it wasn’t meant to be. Meanwhile powerhouse NU cruised to a 107-46 win over ISBB, and is primed to wipe out the competition with their all-star line-up. In a Vismin Passerelle battle, Corpus Christi outscored St. Robert’s, 81-75.

In their messages at the opening ceremony, both SBP Executive Director Sonny Barrios and Milo sports executive Lester Castillo stressed the value of the BEST Center’s SBP Passerelle program. Barrios cited BEST Center founder Nic Jorge for deciding to focus on working with the youth even if he has already coached at the highest levels of the sport. Castillo, a second generation Milo sports executive whose father actually started Milo’s support for the BEST Center’s activities in 1982, talked about current and past products of the program such as Chris Tiu, Benjie Paras, Jerry Codiñera and the Ravena brothers. He also mentioned that many of the members of the UAAP teams in the Final Four are also products of the program. For us in Cebu, UP’s Paul Desiderio, Jun Manzo, Janjan Jaboneta and Pio Longga once played in the Cebu leg of the SBP Passerelle tournament. The same is true for Jed Colonia of Adamson University.  I can also remember how Thirdy Ravena and Kib Montalbo faced off against each other in the SBP division championship game of the national finals in Iloilo in 2008 when they were still 12 years old. Ravena was already playing for Ateneo de Manila University Grade School’s SBP team along with the Nieto brothers and Aaron Black. Montalbo was playing for Bacolod Tay Tung High School then before he moved to St. John’s Institute for high school.

Today’s crop of SBP and Passerelle players are also certain to make waves in the future. Among the interesting highlights of the weekend is how Cebu has not only produced players for Manila colleges. It has also produced players for the Passerelle division. While here in San Fernando, we’ve had the chance to chat with NU’s Sid Reroma, Daniel Padilla and Reinhard Jumamoy. So what? Reroma once played SBP basketball for USC and Don Bosco. Padilla played for the UV SBP team last season. Jumamoy played for the USC Passerelle team last year and was named MVP of the 2017 season. Over in NU, he also bagged the MVP award for the Metro Manila leg of the tournament this season. So if you speak Bisaya to the NU players, most of them will speak back to you in Bisaya, too. Also seen here were Sid’s proud parents Britt and Sybil who have brought their family back to Manila. Magnolia Coach Chito Victolero is also here watching his son Carlos Miguel play for La Salle Greenhills. Kenneth Duremdes’s son Kenji, who played for the La Salle Greenhills SBP champion team three years ago, is now playing for the souped-up NU team.

Great things do come from small beginnings. For basketball, that’s surely the SBP Passerelle Twin Tournament staged in partnership with Milo. So if you’re looking for tomorrow’s basketball stars today, you’ll find them here.