SBP Passerelle Regionals
Now that the CESAFI season is over, is the Cebu basketball season done? Far from it. After UV has scored a three-peat in the CESAFI college division and bagged the title of the debuting Under 12 division; and as UC has regained the high school crown, there’s actually a lot to look forward to, but this time in the youth divisions.
Ongoing now in Bacolod is the Visayas Regional Finals of the 33rd SBP Passerelle Twin Tournament backed by Milo. Venue is the Bacolod Tay Tung High School Gym (Pohang Gym). The tournament is managed by the BEST Center and has been the leading competition for the Under 15 and 12 age groups. Representing Cebu are the University of the Visayas for the SBP division (Under 12 age group) and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu for the Passerelle division (Under 15 age group). They face off against the other SBP Passerelle champions from Bacolod, Iloilo and Roxas in a two-day weekend tournament. The other champions in the SBP division are St. John’s Institute of Bacolod, Hua Siong College of Iloilo and Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion of Roxas. The other champions of the Passerelle division are Bacolod Tay Tung High School, St. Robert’s International Academy of Iloilo and HERCOR College of Roxas. The champion of each division qualifies for the national finals that will be held end of November in San Fernando, Pampanga.
So why the fuss about this? The tournament is one of the longest running tournaments for the youth with a nationwide scope. This early, they get the chance to play not only locally but also across their respective regions and at the national level if they make it that far. This is the kind of exposure and experience that coaches and players would love to go through in their careers. This becomes part of the foundation of the careers of many players who move up to the high school ranks (juniors) and the collegiate level. If you look at the roster of today’s high school and college teams, you can bet that part of their experience is having played in an SBP Passerelle tournament of the BEST Center. The tournament that is sponsored by Milo has also produced a number of Milo ambassadors of the sport such as Chris Tiu, Kiefer Ravena, TY Tang, among others. Tiu and Tang played for Xavier School, and so did the likes of Tyler Tio, Jarrel Lim and Kyles Lao. Ravena was an MVP during his SBP days while playing for La Salle Greenhills. Being a phenom, he made it straight to Ateneo de Manila’s Juniors team as a freshman in high school.
For us in the Visayas and since Bacolod is this year’s host for the regionals, it’s important to cite that Kib Montalbo of La Salle once played as an SBP player for Tay Tung then later for St. John’s Institute in the Passerelle division. The top teams in Bacolod are St. John’s, Tay Tung and La Salle Bacolod. From the Cebu side, nine out of ten players who have made it to the UAAP also played in the SBP Passerelle tournament. UP has Paul Desiderio, Janjan Jaboneta, Pio Longga and former Maroon Henry Asilum. La Salle has Leonard Santillan and Christian Manaytay (Team B). Adamson has Jed Colonia and Adamson alumnus Ricric Ochea, while UST has Zachy Huang. NU has Yu brothers Dave and Patrick (Team B) and Joshua Flores (Team B). In FEU is Rendell Senining (Team B). Manila’s current high school programs even have products from the Visayas such as NU’s Steve Nash Enriquez, NCR MVP and former Cebu MVP Reinhard Jumamoy, Daniel Padilla and Sid Reroma. My apologies if I miss out on some names. I haven’t even cited all those who made it to their respective high school juniors teams and college teams here in Cebu.
Is the Cebu basketball season over? There sure is a whole lot of basketball left to be played. And it's the youth segment that’s taking over. Let’s all pray for the UV SBP and SHS-Ateneo de Cebu Passerelle teams as they seek the Visayas championships of their respective divisions.
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