Couple of weeks back, a delegation of approximately 100 FYBA parents, players and siblings made the 8,555 mile trip to Manila to participate in the 2nd Annual Laguna International Basketball Classic hosted by Tumakbo Philippines.
FYBA’s four Select teams —11u, 14u, 16u, and 20u — joined about 60 local Filipino basketball teams for three days of competitive basketball from August 3-5.
But basketball wasn’t our only focus: On August 1, our FYBA players and parents also participated in the PUSO Foundation basketball camp for local youth in Barangay Las Piñas.
The camp, organized by former FYBA player Jordan Mejica Bartlett (who now plays for the De La Salle University Green Archers), provided basketball training for about 100 children, many of them from low-income families.
Our FYBA 20u players served as basketball trainers and were supported by our younger FYBA Select players. Our FYBA families donated about 100 basketball jerseys and shorts for the children.
Service to others is an important part of the FYBA program.
On August 2nd, our 20u team made a two hour trek from Alabang into Manila to scrimmage against the San Beda College Mendiola B Team. Our team of 8 players — paced by Enzo Bascon’s 24 points — matched San Beda’s 25 players for three and half quarters, before losing in a close game.
On August 3rd, all four of our FYBA teams played their first games against teams from the Tiger Basketball Club/Cavite in the Alonte Arena, a 6,500 – seat facility in the City of Binan.
Our teams went 4-0 in the first round. The 11u team was lead by the 3 Point shooting of Robin Casapao. Thomas Batties was an unstoppable force in the paint in our 14u team’s win.
The 16u team’s razor thin win was due to strong play by Gabe Calalang, Rico Limcaoco and Travis Roberts.
The 20u team won in a blowout because of stifling defense and sharing the ball, including an over the head assist by Ethan Satterwhite to Joshua Cordoba. Travis Roberts, who also played for the 20u Team, had a highlight reel that included a dunk, a jumper and another dunk in just 40 seconds!
Day two wasn’t quite as successful as two of our teams lost games and our 16u team barely squeaked out a 1 point comeback win against Myo Malinta. But on Sunday, FYBA’s 11u, 14u and 16u teams advanced to the Championship Game, while our 20u Team fell short in the semi-final against LPU/Laguna, a strong college team.
Our 11u and 14u won their championship games against Cavite Warriors and Valenzuela City respectively.
Our 16u team won in a blowout over Tigers Basketball 16u, paced by 5 three pointers by Chris Castro, who won the 16u Finals MVP Trophy.
Although we travelled to the Philippines to play basketball, our larger purpose was to give our children the experience of visiting the homeland of our birth, or our parents/grandparents birth and experiencing the Filipino culture.
Many of our kids have never been to the Philippines and the entire week provided a lifetime of memorable experiences.
You can find photos and videos of our teams and players on FYBA’s social media platforms (Facebook: @fybaonline, Instagram: FYBA_1, Twitter @FYBA1).
We hope to bring FYBA teams to the play in the Philippines in 2019. In the meantime, please spread the word among your families and friends about FYBA and urge them to sign their children up for our Fall House League, which begins in late September.
Who knows, they might be good enough to make one of our FYBA Select Teams going to the Laguna International Basketball Classic 2019!
Let’s Go FYBA !
Hello Russell,
This is Aileen Ramirez wife of Mcclean Ramirez. I work at Uptown Alley Bowling (Manassas Mall)
I looking forward to discuss our “2019” youth leagues and a few other promotions that we are offering. Please email me at aramirez@uptownalleymanassas.com
Thank you kindly,
Aileen