sbl champs

it was almost four months ago when i witnessed my departmentmates steadfastly sweeping and drying a wet basketball court so that they can play basketball against newly-hired employees. our company’s sportsfest has just concluded back then and there they were determined to play some ball. biruin mo naman, talagang ni-mop nila ang court para lang patulan ang mga neo. 😀 dun ko na-realize that besides these guys, there were still a lot of other guys who want to play basketball but were unable to do so due to the limited slots in the annual sportsfest. it was then that i realize that playing basketball with actual officemates as teammates is an effective teambuilding tool. it was then that support basketball league started…

the following day, i began selling the idea around fellow support group members and, thankfully, they were all open to it. i initially forecasted that four teams will join the mini-tournament but the positive reaction was overwhelming and we ended up with six teams having up to 18 members each. yup… you read that right. 18 players. walang player limit kasi gusto namin bigyan ng chance ang lahat nang gusto maglaro… which is the reason why sbl was created in the first place.

being the coach of the support team, by default, i coached my department, equipment group. to be honest, i was not that confident (unlike when i coach the support team) going into the tournament because i didn’t know the abilities of half of the team. but i was confident nonetheless because i had a system and i had a few players (geri, cesar and radie) who knew the system very, very well. para makilala ko yung ibang players, i planned to play every single one of them during the eliminations. this helped me establish my player rotation… something that i put prime importance in my system.

and everything went according to plan. we swept through the elimination stage… notwithstanding the hiccup of a loss to logistics on a no-bearing game. 😀 going into the playoffs, i already knew my players… and i already knew the competition. i have a solid rotation, the players have grasped the system and i was extremely confident we will win it all.

we knocked off ps warehouse during the semis but suffered a casualty in the process. paul, our tallest guy and a key member of the rotation, went down with a sprained ankle making him unavailable for the finals. that instantly made our road to the championship a little bit tougher… a little bit bumpier.

with paul out, i had to change the player rotation but the game plan remained intact. the plan was simple: use our speed and depth. run as often as possible. maintain fresh legs on the court through frequent substitutions. disrupt their halfcourt offense by applying pressure defense. yes, the plan was simple… but the game wasn’t that simple.

logistics lived up to the hype of being pre-tournament favorites and gave us a fight during the finals. in a classic size vs speed matchup, the game was tight throughout. employing our game plan to the hilt, we managed to hold a slim lead going into the 4th quarter. as expected, logistics made a strong push midway through the final quarter to grab the lead and even threatened to pull away. inserting back my starters, our team slowly chipped at their lead until we eventually tied the game on a radie genteroy steal leading to a breakaway layup. it was our game from there on as not only did we have momentum, logistics was suffering from fatigue also. buti na rin lang kasi d nila na-capitalize yung mga missed free throws namin during the last minute. whew. 🙂

the buzzer soon ended and, despite being short-handed, we got the 1st ever sbl trophy. 🙂




this team was unique and was loaded. we had geri, the best point guard in the history of semphil basketball. he’s big for his position yet pushes the tempo; scores yet passes really well; and plays sticky defense. if semphil had a draft, i’d pick him number 1 overall.

then we had cesar, the perfect weapon for my system. ultra-fast; a finisher and a sniper; and doesn’t tire at all.

we also had the aforementioned paul, our third guard in a size of a center. knows the game extremely well; exceptional passing ability; and fits like a glove in our trapping defense.

speaking of defense, there’s radie, the known defensive stopper, and then there’s toks, the unknown defensive stopper. they are there to prevent points but they’re sneaky on the offensive side and can put up points too.

then we had our trio of big men: jhay, garry and dhelle. jhay’s a rebounding monster and a shot-blocker to boot. garry and dhelle are veterans and act like immovable walls… plus their mid-range jump shots are money.

we also have a trip of guards: johnver, allan and mike. johnver is a complete package: he can score, he can pass and he can steal the ball. allan is the proto-typical wing man: deadly from the outside and slashes to the basket. mike is a veteran combo guard who does what is needed to help the team.

then there are the role players: jeff, rj and sonny are lengthy forwards; christian, aids, terence and sir charles are bulky big men; biboy and norman are pesky guards.

twenty players. twenty champions. 🙂

now for some post-season awards:

duty foul award: biboy
perennial crowd favorite/best low-post move award: sonny
physical-an award: sir charles
nice pass award: paul
save the best for last award: norman
d ko alam pano ko ipapasok sa support team award: johnver
mabuhay miles award: allan
one game only award: terence