MANILA — San Beda and La Salle Green Hills have opted to put country over cage glory by releasing their key players to form the core of the Energen Pilipinas Under-16 Youth team set to compete overseas next month.
Arvin Tolentino and Ranbill Tongco lead the five players given up by the Red Cubs and the Junior Blazers also allowed Gelo Vito to join the national team vying in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) Youth Championship from Aug. 9 to 13 in Banting City, Selangor, Malaysia.
“It’s heartwarming to know that there are schools willing to put the country’s interests ahead of their own,” said national youth coach Olsen Racela. “We’re hopeful that the other schools will follow suit so we can finalize the Energen roster.”
The Red Cubs and the Junior Blazers remain unbeaten in three games in the ongoing NCAA juniors basketball tournament.
Other players released to Energen Pilipinas were Henry Asilum of Sacred Heart-Ateneo de Cebu, Kyles Lao and Isaac Go of Xavier School, and Gideon Babilonia, Andrei Caracut and Rev Diputado of San Beda.
The Seaba tournament serves as qualifier for the Fiba Asia Youth championship on Oct. 18 to 28 in Vietnam.
Although the team is still waiting word from other schools before finalizing the roster, Racela said the entire pool has regularly been practicing for the Seaba tilt.
“We already have nine players who were released by their schools to the Energen Pilipinas squad and that’s an encouraging start,” Racela, the former San Miguel Beer hotshot, said yesterday during a short talk with sportswriters.
“The entire Energen Pilipinas team is really grateful beyond measure for this act of nationalism and sacrifice by these schools and their officials.”
Among the officials Racela acknowledged were San Beda coach Britt Reroma and athletic director Ato Badolato; La Salle coach John Flores and SPDO head Bro. Bobby Caringal, FSC; Xavier coach Jonathan Reyes and principal Jane Cacacho, and Sacred Heart-Ateneo de Cebu coach Rommel Rasmo, athletic director Rico Navarro and president Fr. Manuel Uy, SJ.