Leap of faith
Stunning. Uplifting. And yes, comforting.
The victory of the UP Maroons over the Ateneo Blue Eagles exactly a week ago, 72-69 in overtime, was just the victory I needed after Monday’s heartbreak at the polls.
Both fights (the elections and the basketball championship) were personal to me, and while I mourned over the first fight, I danced in exultation with the second. Alas, most times, one can’t have everything.
“Not in our stars,” a fellow UP alumnus told me. It would have been another one for the books if a UP graduate like Vice President Leni Robredo were elected on the same month and year the UP Fighting Maroons clinched the championship after a drought of 36 years, 36 years after another woman was elected president. It would have made a good narrative, but yes, it was not in our stars.
But one loss does not, should not, detract from UP’s sweet victory.
My mother Sonia, my three sisters Mae, Geraldine and Valerie, my only niece Trish Sotto and I, as well as my husband Ed Ramirez and brother-in-law Ping Sotto, are all UP alumni. That Friday, we only wore one color. We were maroon.
Since I had to bring my mom to a medical checkup, I missed the games at the Mall of Asia Arena, but caught it (sometimes I closed my eyes, okay) on TV. When it was all over, I watched replays of the final crucial minutes and seconds as many times as I have replayed Crash Landing on You. A gazillion times, especially the moments that made my heart race.
“When JD Cagulangan sank that history-making three-point shot, I screamed in jubilation and actually burst into tears,” recalls my niece Trish Sotto, who was among the 15,000 that witnessed basketball history on the hardcourt last May 13.
“The maroon side of the Arena absolutely erupted — people were cheering their hearts out, jumping for joy, embracing each other, and proudly waving their ‘UP FIGHT’ signs. In the blink of an eye, with less than a second to spare — history had been made!”
For Trish, valedictorian of her graduating class in 2014, “This was more than basketball; this was a fight to prove that against all odds — underdogs can win. That destiny can indeed triumph over dynasty. The UP Men’s Basketball team demonstrated exactly that in the most epic, inspiring fashion possible.”
Lawyer Gaby Concepcion, wife of UP president Danny Concepcion, said that basketball games involving UP often stress her “because UP always likes to come from behind! ‘The Cramming Maroons’ nga daw,” she laughs. And yet, all the crucial attempts of the UP Maroons connected with the goal.
“It was a wondrous moment with all of the UP crowd — worth all the stress,” Gaby reminisces.
She points out some amazing trivia: Cagulangan wore the number 13 on his jersey, and sank 13 points on a Friday the 13th. I also noticed the first name of UP’s coach, “Goldwin” Monteverde.
But all these lucky signs were reportedly matched with sacrifice, discipline, skill, and the coach’s steely calmness under pressure. Just the type of guy you want at the controls in a turbulent flight, or presiding over the operating table when a patient’s vitals are zigzagging in a do-or-die situation.
After the championship, the team celebrated at the University Hotel in the UP campus. According to Gaby, the team didn’t want preparations for the bonfire on the same night of the championship. So the bonfire was held the following day, Saturday.
“Did you hear about how the bonfire was sooo huge when they lit it up? Hindi daw kasi sanay ang UP mag-bonfire and should take lessons from Ateneo!” Gaby concedes graciously, at least when it comes to lighting up bonfires.
In creating a bonfire, medyo kulang nga sa practice ang UP (UP lacks some practice). After all it had been 36 years, too long ago that many players of the UP Maroons that brought home the championship in 1986 are “now grandfathers,” said the games’ sportscasters.
I have also seen how UP’s team spirit, once virtually non-existent, has gelled in the last few years till it formed into one giant boulder this year.
The supposed lack of team spirit and alumni support for the Fighting Maroons, compared to the solid support of alumni behind the Blue Eagles and the Green Archers, has been attributed to the reality that the “Diliman Republic” is like the Philippines, an archipelago of several colleges and campuses.
But leading up to 2019, when UP faced Ateneo for the championship — which the Blue Eagles won resoundingly in Game One, 89-63 — the spirit has been rekindled. And now it is a bonfire.
***
Here’s a recap of that fabulous Friday the 13th as told by John Bryan Ulanday of philstar.com.
“On Friday night, history finally beckoned on the Fighting Maroons as not even the jinx of a Friday the 13th could spoil that long-coveted bid with JD Cagulangan draining the game-winning triple for a 72-69 overtime victory over reigning champion Ateneo in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the UAAP Season 84 finals at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
“Cagulangan’s trey in the last 0.5 seconds capped a stinging 8-0 run in the last minute for UP, which exorcised its decade-long ghosts to rise as the UAAP king for the first time after 1986 before a massive crowd of 15,132 fans.”
There was also the shot from CJ Cansino that tied the game in the regulation period, making Cagulangan’s heroic, historic three-pointer possible in overtime.
I’m not really a sports fan, but I give my best to crusades.
I think this fight to bring home the championship for UP was more than just a game. It was a crusade.
It also showed to a spectator like me that team spirit is indispensable, and yet every team needs a hero. Or heroes. A rallying figure not just to call the shots but to stand up and be counted till the last leap of faith and the final buzzer from the fat lady. *
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