FORMER TALK ‘N Text assistant coach Bong Ramos was at the FEU gym last Friday morning to watch the last game of the RP junior women’s team in the 2008 Nike Summer Basketball League.

Bong said he deserves to be awarded a medal for a hundred percent attendance. He has not missed a single game nor a single practice session of the junior ladies.

“I have all the time to be a stage father, walang ginagawa eh,” said Bong whose 15-year-old daughter Camille, a St. Scholastica student, is in the team.

I told Bong I was there to see for myself how good the RP juniors were. Their record in the Nike League after the first round was 6-2 against senior lady varsity cagers. Their average winning margin over their opponents was almost 50 points (46.83).

Bong said they could have easily swept the series.

“The game against FEU was already a won game for them had they not missed a free throw in the end game. They lost to FEU by one point. Their other loss was to PCCr which was their very first game in a tournament. At that time they were just feeling their way in,” Bong related.

The RP juniors beat UAAP champion Ateneo, 67-28; WNCAA runner-up College of St. Benilde, 69-49; PUP, 82-36; San Beda Alabang, 84-12; and Feati, 77-24. That day, they won against La Salle Lipa, 87-36.

San Beda assistant coach Mike Advani, who caught the tailend of this game, suggested that the junior ladies play against male juniors to get a really good workout.

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Alaska assistant manager CK Kanapi was animatedly cheering for her squad which was leading by about 20 points over Purefoods when a PBA staff approached her to report that her 8-month old Mazda 3 Hatchback had been burglarized.

CK’s car was parked only a few feet away from the entrance of the Ynares Center where last Friday’s PBA games were played.

CK rushed to her car. She was horrified to find that the window on the driver’s side had been smashed and all the valuables inside were gone.

“I almost broke into tears. My digi-cam, my iPod and two cell phones were all stolen. Where were the security guards?” demanded CK.

To compound her problems, her father Bobby was not around to come to her rescue. He was on a business trip abroad.

According to CK, witnesses reported seeing a man in a motorcycle hovering around CK’s car. However, no one could identify him.

The only bright spot for CK that Friday night was Alaska’s victory, which she said somehow made her feel a little better.

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The young swimmers didn’t win a single gold, but Fighting Orcas coach Susan Papa said she’s happy with the two silver and four bronze medals the Fighting Orcas collected in the recently concluded Taiwan Cruise Swim Challenge held in Phuket, Thailand last week.

“The swimmers were really great. I’m proud of them,” said Susan of her wards who competed against 19 teams from all over the world.

Eleven-year-old Patrick Tiere from Brent School won a silver in the 100-meter butterfly and 2 bronze medals in the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly, while 9-year-old Rafael Santiago of Southridge pocketed a silver in the 100m butterfly and a bronze in the 50m backstroke. Another 9-year-old, Hilario Davide IV, also of Southridge School, won a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly.

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If you ask Grandmaster Eugene Torre for an assessment on the current state of Philippine chess, he will not hesitate to tell you that conditions are almost ideal.

“Of late, we produced three Grandmasters in Wesley So, Jayson Gonzales and Darwin Laylo, which is an achievement, and competitions here and abroad are continuous. Philippine chess is very much alive,” said Eugene.

But nothing in this world is perfect and Eugene admits to a small flaw.

“Yung dati pa rin. Hindi pa rin in perfect harmony ang mga officers.”