‘11 days in August’

To continue to inspire our countrymen and the next generation of Filipino athletes, we need a repository of the deeds and achievements of the present crop of sports performers.

Sure, an online database will preserve the stories and pictures for as long as no major technological crash occurs in our lifetime. But there’s nothing quite like a book.

Take for instance the sterling achievement of the Gilas Pilipinas basketball team last August in the Fiba Asia tournament. It’s a story for the ages as the country returned to the top echelon of hoops in the region after years of frustration.

It was a great time for all as Filipinos from all walks of life chipped in their support for a team that represented them and their game.

This milestone in Philippine basketball history has now been put together in the Sports 5 book, “11 Days in August.” I had the opportunity to be the editor and worked with writer Rick Olivares, art director Franco Sevilla, photographer Philip Sison, editorial assistant Addie Sullivan, game analyst Andy Jao and project director Arben Santos.

The book is available at the Sports 5 office through Connie Reyes ([email protected]). I won’t pitch the merits of the work but instead share with you notes on assembling a sports book that could guide others to initiate similar projects.

First, we need to archive better our sports photos and materials. There’s no problem about shooting the events today. But for historical photos, we need to have a better resource for our archives.

At best, our valuable historical data are in the newspapers, the National Museum or the private collections of the athletes. The museum could do it but its resources are already stretched as it is.

For this book, the personal photos of the participants helped tell the story. Ronnie Magsanoc had delightful photos of the 1990 Beijing Asian Games team that has them dapper in coats and ties and in their usual hoop attire. The museum provided a few shots from the Carlos Loyzaga era.

One can only imagine if Martial Law did not happen in the country and how much more material could have been saved from the files of the newspapers of the pre-1972 era.

Second, there’s nothing like the delightful stories that go “up close and personal,” as they say in sports.

For example, Gary David’s request to make a quick home visit because he wanted to make sure that he “had packed Gary David” for this journey. David was in a slump in the tournament but finally exploded after the request was granted.

Then there was Coach Chot Reyes’ one-on-one with Beau Belga, who was the last man cut from the roster. Belga took the news like the tough man he was and was thankful for the opportunity to be part of the process, given that there were other bigger lights not considered for the job.

These are just two reasons why we need more sports books in the country. We need to tell generations to come of what we have done and not merely tales of what we have failed to do.