CYBL

Allow me to take time out from the usual and write about one of our personal baby projects (with the permission from my sports editors Manny and Lemuel). It’s the Cebu Youth Basketball League or CYBL. What started out as a fringe league in 2008 has now bloomed to become one of the biggest in Cebu. Yet how we pulled it through for the past years? I can’t really explain it.

Over the weekend, we close the CYBL 3rd Conference for the school-year 2018-2019 with a series of championship games. This latest edition featured a total of 154 teams spread over four age groups and two divisions. We split up the ballclubs into two divisions. Division 1 is for the more established ballclubs and schools, while Division 2 is for the smaller schools, ballclubs and Team Bs of the stronger schools. Division 1’s major age groups are Under 12, Under 15 and Under 18. Division 2 also features the same U12, U15 and U18 age groups, along with the special Under 10 Fun Division. Games were played every weekend and on holidays at the SHS-Ateneo Mango Avenue campus gym, Sisters of Mary School-Boystown, Sisters of Mary School Girlstown, Aznar Coliseum of SWU-PHINMA, USPF Gym, USC South Campus and SHS-Ateneo Canduman campus.

At yesterday’s Division 1 finals, we had a pleasant mix of champions from the different age groups, proving that the Cebu basketball age group scene is no longer dominated by only UV and SHS-Ateneo de Cebu. UV won the Under 12 age group title over SHS-Ateneo de Cebu, while USPF stunned UV to win the Under 15 age group championship. The third champion in as many age groups was SHS-Ateneo de Cebu in the Under 18 segment, after it outclassed Cinderella team Sisters of Mary School-Boystown. Details of these games are found in a separate story here in our sports page. In a Division 2 final, UV-B won over USC North-B in the Under 12 age group as Don Bosco Technical College defeated UV in the Under 10 Fun Division.

Among the major take-outs from the tournament was that when one is patient, disciplined and hard-working, one can pull off surprises. This was proven when USPF stunned UV in the U15 title game. I actually felt that USPF would go all the way but possibly not necessarily win the championship after they defeated SHS-Ateneo 1 on the latter’s home-court in Canduman during the classification phase. Another pleasant surprise was the Sisters of Mary School-Boystown Under 18 team that made it all the way to the finals. SMS-Boystown is one of those schools that refused to play in Division 2 as a rookie team. Upon joining the CYBL, they insisted on playing in Division 1 as they felt it was the only way to level up. They didn’t mind the losses from their rookie season, worked hard through the past year and there they were at yesterday’s finals. Was an upset possible? Surely as they upset SHS-Ateneo de Cebu at the SBP U16 3X3 Pambansang Tatluhan Central Visayas Finals last September. And here they were facing off again. The other key contribution worth noting is that the CYBL has provided the schools with a chance to improve their program’s competitiveness. Don Bosco’s winning the Under 10 Fun division should be the start of something big. The return of USC South could also bring them back to those days when they were the most dominant team in the SBP and Passerelle age groups.

The main purpose of the CYBL is plain and simple. Give the youth an avenue to just play, play and play, all year-round. Nothing more, nothing less. “Duwa lang gyud.” That’s the CYBL battlecry. Championships are not the target. Exposure, experience, fun, fellowship and personal development are the key success measures that the league seeks. By doing this, the CYBL also seeks to prepare the young ones for the big leagues. And through the past eleven years, we’d like to believe that things are looking pretty good. We can proudly say that we now have products in the biggest of leagues. Did you know that PBA players Roger Pogoy, Kris Porter and Miller Dennison and Paul “Atin ‘to” Desiderio once played in the CYBL? And so did former Batang Gilas players Jed Colonia, Dave Yu, Dawn Ochea, Henry Asilum and Josh Sinclair. In the UAAP, NCAA or PBA D-League are CYBL alumni like Zachy Huang (UST), Jun Manzo, Janjan Jaboneta and Pio Longga of UP; Colonia (Adamson), Orlan Wamar (CEU/Marinerong Pilipino); Alex Visser, JB Bahio and Ayn Obeinza (San Beda); Leonard “Santi” Santillan and Christian Manaytay (La Salle), and a few others whose names I can’t recall for now. All of CESAFI’s high school teams are also filled with players who saw action in the CYBL and many of those move up to their college teams.

Aside from the products per se, I also realized that the CYBL’s main venue is also one that needs to be recognized. When a sportswriter paid us a visit after a long time, he said that he misses what he called “grassroots” basketball: multiple games played on multiple courts at the same time and not on those posh “sosyal” gyms that you see on TV and online. This reminded me that we, too have our own iconic playground that has served as THE venue of Cebu’s future. If New York City has Rucker Park, the CYBL has the hallowed Sacred Heart School for Boys Mango Avenue campus gym. I’ll call it by its old name as that’s how basketball aficionados got to know it (when we were younger). It may be old, beat up and not the prettiest gym, but Cebu Basketball will forever be grateful for everything it has done for the sport.

As another school-year’s season closes with CYBL Summer League coming up, allow me to thank all the players, coaches, team officials, parents and supporters for believing in the CYBL. We aren’t perfect, have opportunities for learning and apologize for our shortcomings. But you can rest assured that we will continue to purse the goals for which the CYBL was established. That’s a wrap for Season 11. Up next? Season 12.