Basketball in the Fifth

Summer is officially on us and one of the sports events that we look forward to are the grassroots tournaments that take place in the probinsya. On our side of Cebu is the ongoing 9th edition of the Cong. Red Durano Cup, a basketball tournament featuring players 18 years old and younger from the ten municipalities and lone city of the fifth district. These are Danao (defending champion), San Francisco (2018 runner-up), Liloan, Compostela, Carmen, Catmon, Sogod, Borbon, Pilar, Poro and Tudela.

I had heard of the Durano Cup (also called the Congressional Cup) before, more because of the rise of ex-PBA player Eliud Poligrates of Poro who once played for the Southwestern University Cobras in the CESAFI. Poligrates was a highlight type of a player (point guard) who liked to wow the crowd with his fancy moves and ball-handling skills. While this wasn’t exactly pleasing to the eyes of his coaches, he was an instant crowd favorite and was a willing entertainer to give in to the crowd. He would later play for M. Lhuillier/ML Kwarta Padala before having a rare but short stint in the PBA. People then asked where he was from and he proudly declared that he was from Poro, a town in the Camotes Islands. Yes, Camotes, and yes, there are many talented players coming from the place many people simply call as “isla.” Little did I know that I would have a closer encounter with the Durano Cup when my son Popoy was selected to be part of the Liloan team that played in 2012 edition. That team was managed by Boss Bobby Motus, coached by Teroy Albarillo and featured someone named Paul Desiderio (UV). With Desiderio leading the team, it was obviously a competitive squad that included a crop of CESAFI high school players. Among the family names I can recall from that team were Talisic (UC), Oliva (UC), Cuyos (CITU), Entrampas (CITU) and Asotigue (USC). Danao won the championship of that edition and was also loaded with talent like then MVP Brylle Meca (USPF), Hermosilla (USJR), Cuyos, and Quiros. Allen Dimco (CITU) played for Carmen; Gabe Branzuela (SHS-Ateneo) and de la Cerna (UV) played for Sogod. Sorry for the last name-recall. I can’t remember their first names. Those are the players I can recall for now, but one thing was clear. The talent level of the players then was relatively high as many of the teams were filled with CESAFI high school players. And that says a lot about a tournament in the probinsya. That was 2012 before the tournament took a “sabbatical” of sorts from 2013-2016. The tournament was revived in 2017 with San Francisco winning the championship and Danao winning the 2018 edition. Among the latest finds is Kenny Rogers Rocacurva of San Francisco, someone who became a crowd favorite with this daring brand of play. Like Poligrates, he hailed from Camotes Islands and was also left-handed.

This year’s edition looks like it’s going to be more competitive than the previous years. While Danao is a favorite to score a second straight championship, the other towns have caught up. Based on the first days of games, Carmen, Liloan, San Francisco and Compostela will be crowding Danao for the four semifinal round spots. In a recent game, Liloan leaned on an end-game triple to beat San Francisco, 65-64, while San Fran also weathered a tough-fighting Compostela squad, 70-68. The pleasant surprise has come from the teams from Camotes. They are now clearly stronger than their 2018 versions and although their records aren’t great, they’ve shown that they can compete. For the first time in a long time, Tudela and Poro scored their first wins in the tournament. Tudela even nearly upset Borbon Thursday night; if their inbound alley-oop play with two seconds left was good, that would’ve been a second win.

Like the past, the tournament sees the games being played in the different municipalities and lone city of the fifth district. Every game day is at a different venue/town in a modified home-and-away format of games. And this now includes trips to the four towns in the Camotes Islands. This is local sports tourism at work, bringing entertainment and action to a local town, also boosting the town’s economy. Every hosting guarantees the home team of home-crowd support made up of rabid fans and cheerers. The key element here is that the fans know their team’s players personally as the rules call for all players to be registered voters of the town for which they play. If he isn’t a registered voter due to age, his parents should be registered voters. Another consideration is that the players themselves are students of a local school for at least two years. Truly grassroots and homegrown.

With the Governor’s Cup also ongoing for the Under 21 age group and the Samsam Gullas Cup that ended last February, we’re now experiencing tons of basketball action for the entire province (and not just urban Cebu), something that we’ve been missing before. But there’s more to be done. I really hope the other districts can put up their own Congressional basketball tournaments, and later games for other events like volleyball and futsal. There are just too many wins that can come out of all this. We give the youth an excellent venue to grow as individuals. We give them the chance to be seen for a possible shot at joining the basketball programs of schools. We bring entertainment and economic boost to a local host-town. And we all have fun.

You simply can’t go wrong with sports now, can you? [email protected]