The Fajardos: Putting the ‘A’ in family

The Fajardo family (from left): Ellen, Ava andi and Allan. Ella is already in New Jersey after finishing her stint with the Gilas Pilipinas senior women’s team. —FRANCIS T. J. OCHOA

Picture a family with parents who describe themselves as “undersized” and who have three children, all girls.

“If you look at us,” the mom said, gesturing at her and her husband, “there’s no way we’d have really tall kids.”

So how that family produced two relatively “small” kids who would play key roles for Philippine basketball is something even Ellen Fajardo can’t figure out.

“I don’t know,” she said, laughing, during a dinner chat with the Inquirer at Sha Tin Courtyard that toasted the success of the Gilas Pilipinas youth team, which won the Fiba (International Basketball Federation)Asia U16 girls Division B championship in Jordan recently. “When [eldest daughter] Ella was going through her college recruitment phase, it was so hard because she needed to do more than others because of her size.”

Ellen and Allan Fajardo are the parents of Ella and Ava, the latter an ultra-talented Gilas point guard who quarterbacked a team that flattened the opposition in Amman and produced a statistically rare run that caught the attention of the international basketball federation.

The title promoted the youth squad to Division A, where the young stalwarts now get to sit with the big girls at the elite Fiba table. The 15-year-old Ava showcased enviable court savvy that unlocked the skills of one of the deepest youth squads the country has ever produced.

Nurturing environment

About two weeks before that, 20-year-old Ella, now a Division I standout for Fairleigh Dickinson in the US NCAA, led the Philippines’ senior team to a scintillating run in the Fiba women’s Asia Cup in Australia that, for the first time, kept the country plugged in Division A without having to play a win-or-get-relegated match to avoid demotion.

Allan and Ellen raised their kids in a nurturing environment, giving their kids room to grow and supporting whatever athletic choices they made. Initially, for instance, Ella was into karate, rising to a black belter before focusing on basketball.

But what makes the Fajardos unique is that they try their best to make time for all their kids’ tournaments, even if they have to cross time zones to do so.

“We need to be fair to the kids,” said Allan. “If we go to Ella’s tournament, we want to be there also for Ava.”

This year, that meant traveling to the Philippines from their home in New Jersey to be with both daughters for their respective separate training camps, flying to Cambodia to join Ella in the Southeast Asian Games, rejoining Ella in Australia and then hopping on a plane to Jordan for Ava’s U16 stint.

“Basically, because of basketball, we get to travel all over the world because of the kids,” Allan, 47, said.

“We make it a priority. Even though I know it’s a lot, we try to make it work,” Ellen added.

They do all that at their own expense—the Fajardos are wary of the looming credit card bills which, because of their daughters’ stints, will incur costs that Ellen, a 47-year-old accountant, described as “one time, big time.”

But the family counts costs differently.

‘Gift of basketball’

“It’s the gift of basketball,” said Ellen. “Basketball’s gift to our family is that we are able to create memories for our family through basketball.”

And their family was a gift to Philippine basketball as well.

Ella and Ava were integral parts of two squads that now belong to Asia’s “A” level, a feat very few athlete-siblings will be able to match. Except for their ages, you could almost swap the sisters, both listed at 5-foot-5, on both teams because of their similar play—gutsy, hard-nosed and smart.

And even if Ella is four years older, there was little she needed to share with Ava in terms of basketball know-how.

“She knows that I really know what I need to do to get [things] done,” Ava said. “So all she does is encourage me to do my best, play my game, stay aggressive.”

For the two sisters, motivation comes easy.

“It’s a goal to represent the country,” Ellen said, adding that they are hoping a third Fajardo sibling, 11-year-old Andi, follows in her older sisters’ footsteps.

“When Ella was able to get that opportunity [to play for the national team], we dreamed about our other children, even Andi, maybe representing the Philippines someday.”