SMC toasts big year

Over the din of the music and celebration, Magnolia coach Chito Victolero screamed into the microphone: “I hope there are more events like this in the future!”

That was Friday night, when the Hotshots partied at the San Miguel Corp. headquarters to toast the franchise’s 14th PBA crown, the season-ending Governors’ Cup.

The day before, Petron’s Blaze Spikers ruled the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino conference for that franchise’s second crown this year. Petron’s volleybelles had earlier captured the Grand Prix.

Magnolia’s crown came on Wednesday when the Hotshots scored the first 12 points and coasted to the title in Game 6 of the Finals series.

The back-to-back wins by squads under the SMC group underscored the comglomerate’s dominance in the country’s sporting landscape.

While waiting for top rookie pick Christian Standhardinger, the San Miguel Beermen topped the PBA Philippine Cup (against the Hotshots). Standhardinger was still playing for Hong Kong Eastern in the Asean Basketball League and joined the Beermen in the Commissioner’s Cup, which was eventually ruled by Barangay Ginebra (against the Beermen).

The team that went on to capture the Asean crown? Alab Pilipinas, which was backed by SMC and whose imports eventually went on to play for the Beermen (Renaldo Balkman) and the Gin Kings (Justin Brownlee) in the PBA.

The triumphs of San Miguel Beer, Barangay Ginebra, Magnolia, Petron and Alab Pilipinas were hardly coincidental, said SMC sports director Alfrancis Chua, who credits the strong support system laid out for the different teams by SMC big boss Ramon S. Ang.

“Whatever the teams need, we try to give them,” said Chua.

“We’re like family. We treat each other like family, that’s why we’re like this,” he added.

“[This] just shows that San Miguel, especially Boss Ramon S. Ang, is focused—not only on the business side of it all. He’s hands-on with everything.”

And Victolero may get his wish for more parties like this. The SMC group doesn’t look like it is slowing down any time soon.

“We’re not going to stop now. 2019, 2020, we have to find ways to make us competitive,” Chua vowed.