INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines — Three Ateneo players, led by UAAP juniors finals MVP Kiefer Ravena, will banner the Nokia national youth team in the the upcoming FIBA Asia Under-16 championship next month in Malaysia.

Ravena will be joined by teammates Von Pessumal and Paolo Romero. All three played pivotal roles in the Eaglets' back-to-back title romp.

“We’re back on our regular practice with the RP team practicing almost everyday for the tournament,” Ravena said.

U16 mentor Eric Altamirano told INQUIRER.net that the national team was aiming to regroup the team players since they all had been busy with their respective schools.

“The last time that we were able to practice as a whole team was June after our friendly match in Beijing and after that we allowed the players to focus with their respective schools,” said Altamirano.

Altamirano added that although the players were active with the tournaments, they would still need to undergo “conditioning” since international competition still requires different training since they will again be exposed to other countries.

“Our immediate plan is to regroup them and condition them for the international competition for the first two weeks, “ said Altamirano noting that they only have five remaining weeks before their competition in Malaysia.

Altamirano also added that they have 17 players as of the moment but they would have to trim it down to 15 players and he noted that the Fil-Am Bobby Parks won’t be joining the line up since he was still in the US.

The remaining weeks, he said, will also be allotted to train the players as one team again with their tune up games in Cebu on November 5-9 for the Nokia Invitational Cup.

The under-16 squad will get a preview of their Fiba Asia opponents in the 2nd Nokia Pilipinas Youth Invitational Basketball Championship from Nov. 5 to 8 at the University of San Carlos Gym in Cebu City.

“For the team, this invitational is very important so we can gauge our preparation for the coming Fiba Asia,” national U-16 coach Eric Altamirano said during the PSA Forum Tuesday at Shakey’s UN Avenue.

The Philippines will go up against Iran, Japan and Chinese-Taipei in the pocket tournament in Cebu, before meeting the same teams again in the Fiba Asia U-16 Championship on Nov. 19 to 27 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

The national team, however, will see action minus Ray Parks, the Filipino-American son of seven-time PBA Best Import Bobby Parks.

FEU’s Cris Tolomia, San Beda’s Dan Sara and Raf Nayve, Perpetual Help’s Angelo Alolino, La Salle Green Hills’ Michael Pate and Rene Sta. Maria, Holy Child’s Emmanuel Bonleon, RTU’s Jeoff Javillonar, Adamson’s Nestor Bantayan and Arellano’s Prince Caperal complete the lineup.