Maiden MGBL journey to take off with grassroots basketball tourney

CEBU, Philippines — Buoyed by its ardent desire to contribute something in the development of Cebu sports, the Minglanilla GSports Basketball League (MGBL) will kick off its inaugural season with grassroots basketball tournament.

Presented by GSports Entertainment in partnership with the local government unit of Minglanilla under the flagship of mayor Lani Pena, the developmental league that will run for two months gets underway with a simple opening rites scheduled at 8 a.m. on Saturday at the Minglanilla Sports Complex.

“Given the turnout of participants, this is a good start for a maiden basketball league,” said MGBL founder Gerry Canonigo

in a press conference the other day at Grim’s Restaurant in Upper Pakigne, Minglanilla.

MGBL’s ground-breaking event has attracted a total of 20 teams, 13 in the 17-Under and seven in the 13-Under age group.

MGBL commissioner Archemai Aquino said the contenders in the Under 17 category are the Minglanilla Archangels, Passerelle teams of Salazar Colleges of Science and Institute of Technology (SCSIT), University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), University of San Carlos (USC), Springwoods, Tulay National High School, Lipata NHS, Modena, RnT, Tungkil, Spire, Soldiers and Pinggan.

Seeing action in the Under 13 division are the Minglanilla Archangels, Tubod Elementary School, Lipata ES, Tulay U13, Red Vipers, Tungkil Warriors, and Mighty Technologian.

The entries will be divided into two brackets. They will play a single round robin, with the top two teams per bracket advancing to the crossover semifinals. The winners will dispute the title in a knockout match.

Aside from trophies, the champions will also pocket P10,000 and P6,000 in the U17 and U13 categories, respectively, while the runners-up will take home P5,000 and P4,000. The best coach will receive a P3,000 bonus.

Canonigo said he believes that sports development should start in the grassroots level that is why he decided to form MGBL last year with the help of his close associates Galimar Largo and Neil Sasan.

They eventually came up with the idea of staging an age-group tilt upon noticing that last summer that basketball clinics are mushrooming in their area but the kids have no avenue to further hone up their hoop skills on a highly competitive stage.

“There are so many kids here in our place who are interested in basketball and they wanted more,” said Canonigo. “There are a lot of clinics but their momentum will just die down because there are no tournaments intended for them. That is the reason why we are holding this MGBL league. This is for them.”

Canonigo made it clear though that basketball is just the tip of their multi-sport program for aspiring athletes.

“Basketball is only our entry point. It is just the launching pad of our sports program,” said Canonigo, adding that they are also bent on helping polish raw talents in various sporting disciplines particularly volleyball, chess, badminton, and boxing.

Testament to that, Canonigo is among the prime movers of the 10,000 BC (Bacus Canonigo Boxing Club), home of a bunch of Manny Pacquiao wannabes who are actively competing in various events organized by the Alliance of Boxing Associations of the Philippines (ABAP) in this side of the country.

“We have a lot of visions here. And we are now on our first year in making our vision and mission happen,” said Canonigo. “We are still on our baby walk. We will take things one step at a time and hopefully make this league a success.” (FREEMAN)