ANALYSIS: In a year of World Cups for the Philippines, a need to make things count
Gilas Pilipinas during a Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers game. Photo by Fiba
If you limit yourself to judging Yeng Guiao based on his PBA avatar—the brash, temperamental, curse-spitting figure patrolling the Rain or Shine sideline—you will end up underappreciating the veteran coach’s genius.
He talks within the limits of his reality, careful to choose his words so that he does not end up with declarations he cannot back. Even Guiao’s coaching philosophy is grounded on the limits of his team vis-a-vis the PBA’s super squads, revealing a few tricks that he hopes will give him “an inch or so of an advantage.”
“These little things,” Guiao said, “when you put them together, will give us—at least—a fighting chance.”
“But don’t write about that because then, we lose what little edge we have,” he said, laughing.
Then, as as he sipped from his coffee cup, he pondered, among other things, the question: “What should the Philippines gain from hosting the Fiba World Cup?”
The question was posed because after the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas rode out a wave of criticism and undue hate over the performance of national coach and Gilas Pilipinas program director Chot Reyes, there was an early feeling that the national federation wants to get basketball’s centerpiece event over and done with.
Guiao could have swatted hard at the cottonball pitch of a question with generic answers like “national pride” or a chance to showcase to the world the country’s love for a sport so incongruent with its natural physical attributes and abilities.
“What I really hope is that by getting exposed to the top national teams in the world and looking at how they build their teams for events like this,” said the one-time World Cup mentor.
For Guiao, there is an utmost urgency for the SBP to focus heavily on the grassroots.
It seems paradoxical, coming from a coach who is a proponent of building the national team out of the PBA’s talent pool. But, he argued, it’s sensible if you think of grassroots as the high school level.
For Guiao, it is a better way that trusting college leagues and schools to regularly open their doors to the national team and allow its talents to form a long-term cadet squad for future competitions.
“How many programs still do that today? How many successful programs?” Guiao said, adding it would be better to “train talents at the high school level to imbibe the national team’s system so that it becomes second nature to them.”
And then you cross your fingers that whatever they absorb isn’t squeezed out by four or five years in college.
“When they get to the PBA, or play overseas, it would be easier to pull them to the national team and just train together for a few months or so before the tournament,” he said.
Sustainable national team programs will be crucial in the year 2023, when the country will participate in two World Cups. Aside from the basketball showcase, there will also be football’s Women’s World Cup which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand, where the country will make its breakthrough appearance in the sport’s biggest stage.
Because as big as 2023 will be for the basketball and football federations, the days after the final whistles are blown in both World Cups will be even more important.
Against that backdrop, under an overcast Sunday sky at a football field in Makati, young athletes of varying ages were undergoing different stages of training. There were beginners, around four to five years old, getting in their first kicks. In one corner of the huge field were teenagers like Ariana Gementiza, who were in a more advanced training session. Gementiza and the likes of Martina Horn, Carlene Dy and Annika Guittierez had represented Makati Football Club—successfully—in international competitions before and are driven by the success of the Filipinas.
“Watching our national team play AFF live in our home turf, Rizal Memorial Stadium, made me feel good and more motivated to play,” Gementiza said after a tournament late last year. “And I hope that one day I will be just like them [playing for flag and country].“
These young kids may not be Sarina Boldens, Olivia McDaniels, Quinley Quezadas, Isabella Flannigans or Anika Castanedas yet, but given their promising talent and indefatigable will to excel, do they have pathways to their national team dream?
After they’ve stowed their kits, zipped up their tote bags and left the Makati Football Club field, will the next part of their football journey be as accessible as the training and support they get from MFC?
Regardless of what happens, Guiao said, basketball must get a palpable upgrade after the World Cup.
“We can’t waste this opportunity,” he said.
The Philippine Football Federation should milk something tangible, too, from the Filipinas’ historic World Cup appearance. The inspiration the team created—even Spain’s La Liga noted an increase in football participation among young Filipino girls—is something the PFF must translate into a truly nationwide program for the sport.
Because as big as 2023 will be for the basketball and football federations, the days after the final whistles are blown in both World Cups will be even more important.
(Francis T. J. Ochoa is the sports editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer)
