Romero living out a dream

We take a short break from the FIFA World Cup 2006, the National Basketball Association finals, the failure of Tiger Woods to make the cut for the first time in his 10-year career as a golf professional and other noteworthy sports news from all over the world, to highlight an equally newsworthy achievement: Harbour Centre’s winning the 2006 Philippine Basketball League (PBL) Unity Cup.

What makes the Harbour Centre Port Masters 73-66 victory truly deserving of attention is that very few people gave them a chance to get this far, not to mention win the championship over the awesome Toyota-Otis five.

Consider the following. In its first season in the PBL, Harbour Centre, which took over the AMP Mobile franchise in 2005, could do no better than land between the fifth and eighth place among eight teams. The Port Masters improved their position slightly in their second season when they ended up in fourth place. This season however, the Port Masters came from nowhere to come out on top of the heap.

The Port Masters had to beat the highly favored Granny Goose in the quarterfinals before engaging the Alex Compton-led Montaña Pawnshop in a best-of-five duel that ended in four games. Harbour Centre, owned by Mikee Romero, had to beat the Snack Masters twice while the latter had to only win once.

The highlight of the Port Masters series versus the Montaña Jewelers was game three that went into double overtime. The Port Masters led by as many as 24 points only to see the margin evaporate and the Jewelers tote a seven-point margin with about two minutes to go in regulation.

The Port Masters, however, went on a 10-0 run to lead by three with 2.7 seconds to go. But the Jewelers Al Vergara took matters into his own hands and heaved a triple to level the count and send the game into the first of two overtimes. 

For Mikee Romero, 35, owner of the Port Masters and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Harbour Centre, that game against Montaña was the starting point in the development of the team’s never-say-die character.

Romero, who has a Ph.D. in business, in addition to his undergraduate management degree from De La Salle University (DLSU) and a Master of Business Management (MBM) from the Asian Institute of Management, stated that the victory against Montaña was the key factor in breaking down what he sensed were barriers between the De La Salle and Ateneo recruits.

It will be recalled that when ICTSI disbanded, the Port Masters took in ex-Green Archers Macmac Cardona and Jerwin Gaco, both of whom were with ICTSI, to link up with former Ateneo Blue Eagles LA Tenorio, Magnum Membrere, JC Intal, Larry Fonacier and Paolo Buguia. All these University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) veterans figured in an intense rivalry sometimes fuelled by highly emotional and physical on and off court encounters. Of special mention is the altercation between Gaco and Tenorio in 2003 that resulted in a bench-emptying incident that was later followed by a free-for-all that included ex-Ateneo and La Salle players.

Romero chose to take up the challenge of getting players from two of the fiercest rivals in Philippine sports to come together and play as one team. And the game against Montaña provided the opportunity. Romero said that after the game Joseph Yeo (who is not exactly liked by the Ateneo squad and partisans) came over and hugged Tenorio (who is also not exactly the darling of rabid Lasallians) played a crucial role in the Port Masters dramatic and heart tugging victory.

"Everything changed after that. You even had Gaco protecting Tenorio whenever the latter got into some problems with the bigger players of the opposing team. So, you see, it can be done in sports and it can be done elsewhere," said Romero.

Turning things around is not exactly a new thing. From building a team to running a corporation, Romero says that the key is to recruit the people you need and to get them to play their respective roles. For the Port Masters’ rebuilding efforts, Romero harnessed as coach, ex-La Salle Zobel teammate in the junior squad, Jorge Gallent (a former Far Eastern University Tamaraw), son of La Salle alumnus and ex-pelotari George Gallent, and recruited DLSU’s Yeo, Rico Maierhofer and Ryan Arana, Lyceum’s Chico Lanete, 6’5" Fil-Am from Florida, Robbe Reyes, Jenkins Mesina from the University of the Philippines and Ateneo’s Gec Chia, whose surprise medium range jumper in the 2002 UAAP championship against DLSU took the sting out of the Archers.

In the corporate world, Romero is known to have turned around the struggling Harbour Centre when he and his father, Reghis Romero II of R2 Builders and Smokey Mountain fame, decided to take over the company. When the younger Romero took over as CEO, Harbour Centre was in the red and had a measly five percent share of the market. Now, several years later, Harbour Centre is the country’s largest bulk and break bulk cargo handling port terminal controlling 90 percent of the industry.

One of the key aspects of its operations is that boats can go to Harbour Centre’s piers and unload non-containerized cargoes such as steel and rice straight into parked trucks thus avoiding double handling from the ships in the break water to barges and then to trucks in the pier.

What lies ahead? For Romero, a father of four and husband to the former Shiela Bermudez for the last 14 years, competing in the PBL and preparing for the next conference, which starts in October, is top priority. Joining the Philippine Basketball Association is another possibility within the next two years.

At this point, Romero also hopes to assist in developing the market for the PBL. The recently-concluded conference opened up new possibilities especially in the AB markets: "We had La Salle and Ateneo alumni-executives from Makati and Ortigas going all the way to Olivarez sports center in Parañaque to watch the games. That’s an interesting development that ought to be pursued."

For Romero, sitting as the PBL’s representative in Pilipinas Basketball is a new challenge. It is a challenge that Romero, who confesses to be very passionate about basketball and whose playing career with the multi-titled DLSU was cut short in 1991 by an ankle injury, is only too willing to face. For Mikee Romero, owning a team is living out off court a dream and passion that he could not completely pursue in the playing arena.