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Nokia-RP Youth Opts out of Stankovic cup. |
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Written by Val Victa
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Sunday, 13 July 2008 |
The management and staff of 2008 SEABA U-18 champions Nokia-RP Youth, in consultation with the coaching staff has reconsidered their plans to participate in the upcoming FIBA-Southeast Asia Stankovic qualifier which will be held in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand from July 23 to 28, 2008 and has reached a decision to forego the opportunity. The reason cited was a “conflict with the academic schedules of many of the team’s players”.  Ubon Rachathani, the selected venue for this year’s qualifying round at the Stankovic, is a remote province 10 hours away by land travel from Bangkok. Logistical reports revealed that transfers from the airport to the site and the return trip will bring the total number of travel days to 8. This means that the boys will have to be absent from their classes for over a week.
 It was in a planning meeting held last May 14 where team officials, fresh from their SEABA triumph, laid out the plans to sharpen further our flag-bearing boys who will be facing powerhouse teams such as Iran, Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan, Jordan and China for the FIBA U-18 Asian Finals crown. The games will be held in Tehran, Iran August 28 to Sept. 5. An idea was proposed to have the team play tune up matches at the Stankovic qualifier as part of their training program. Patrick Gregorio, then still the BAP-SBP executive director, promptly gave FIBA Southeast Asia a call to signify the intent and the organizers gamely accommodated his request. At that point, the exact venue of the tournament was still undetermined. But when the province of Ubon Ratchathani was announced and arrangements were made, it showed that the tournament’s location is a distant province bordered by Yasothon to the north, Laos to the east and Cambodia to its south. There are only two connecting flights daily at 0600 and 1515 hours and these flight schedules run contradictory to all available flights from Manila. “The team will be forced to stay an extra day in Bangkok” said Ms. Ito Lopa, Operations manager for the RP Youth team. “Going there by train or bus takes 10 hours.” A check with the various schools and colleges being attended by players showed that the number of absences allowed by our colleges and universities average between 7 to 10 days only. The boys will already lose 10 days of classes when they represent our country in Iran this August. This participation at Stankovic will add 7 to 8 days more. Not to mention the fact that it will run “right-smack-dab” into mid-term exams for some of the boys. As of this writing, the coaching staff plans to ask Noli Eala-current BAP-SBP executive director, to help them secure some playing-time at the on-going Liga Pilipinas to replace the much needed tune-up matches. When asked to comment on the decision to waive the Stankovic cup appearance, team manager Jun Sy pointed out that “missing school runs contrary to the mission, vision and core values we have set for this program. Our desire to mentor our youth demands excellence in their academic endeavors. Failure due to absences will mean that we too have failed as leaders in our mission to produce outstanding citizens and in our vision to become the model institution for other sports programs in the country.”
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