Throwback: PH hosts 1986 ABC Youth Championships amid holiday season

Basketball did not stop in Manila in 1986 despite the holidays as the country hosted the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Under-19 Youth Championships (now known as the FIBA Asia U-19), which opened on December 28 at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. 

The 1986 ABC Youth Championships held a special significance for various reasons. For the Philippines, it meant probably the first time that the country fielded a genuine national youth team made up of players who were all age-eligible.

It was not uncommon decades ago for the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) to send to international competitions national youth teams made up of a mix of eligible and overaged players. The BAP seemingly justified this irregularity by saying that other countries were doing the same anyway.

A running joke in the early 1980s when a player was asked his age was this common reply: “Ang pang-RP Youth o ang tunay na edad?” (The true age or the age for the RP Youth?)

When the country hosted and won the 1982 ABC U-19 Youth Championships – an achievement always cited by local media when they discuss the halcyon days of the Philippine team – the national youth roster was bannered by Hector Calma, who was the quarterback of Adamson when it won its only UAAP title in 1977, Elmer Reyes, who was part of the 1978 NCAA champion San Beda, and Derrick Pumaren, who won the 1978 UAAP title with UE.

If these 3 were already playing collegiate basketball in 1977 and 1978, no amount of mathematical gymnastics would have made them 19 years old in 1982. Two other members of the team were Leo Austria, born in 1958, and the late big man Rey Cuenco, born in 1960.

Cuenco was also part of the U-19 squad that won bronze in the 1984 ABC Youth held in Seoul. Among his teammates were Al Solis and Samboy Lim, both born in 1962. The 1980 youth team featured some of the toughest hombres to ever play in the local scene – Yoyoy Villamin, Terry Saldaña, and Dante Gonzalgo. All 3 of them are 62 years old today.

This practice would have continued in the 1986 edition of the Asian youth tournament. However, Glenn Capacio, the projected team captain of the squad, made a startling revelation when he told the press, “I am 22 years old and the BAP knows this.” This forced the BAP to shift gears to save itself from embarrassment. The national youth team had to be revamped at the last minute.

Coach Joe Lipa, the architect of that year’s UP title run and the man tasked to handle the national youth team, had to scramble to assemble a squad for the competition. Despite the time constraints, Lipa was able to form a pretty solid lineup that was deemed by many as still good enough to contend for the title.

Leading the cast were two vital cogs in UP’s championship conquest, Benjie Paras and Joey Guanio. Other UAAP stalwarts selected by Lipa were Jun Reyes and Eric Reyes of Ateneo, current Alaska team governor Dickie Bachmann of La Salle, Bobby Jose of UST, and Romulo Orillosa of Adamson. 

Lipa also looked to the NCAA for talent and recruited Bong Alvarez and Arnold Adlawan from San Sebastian. Two outstanding big men coming from outside the premier collegiate leagues in the country, Nelson Asaytono of the University of Manila and Zaldy Realubit of the University of San Jose-Recoletos, shored up the team’s frontline. Completing the team was Mar Anthony Magada of Trinity College. 

The 1986 edition of the Asian championships was the coming-out party in the international scene for a couple of young big men who would play prominent roles in their respective country’s future national teams: Paras for the Philippines and Ma Jian and Song Ligang for China. Also making his debut in the international stage in this tournament was the man eventually nicknamed the “Loach Dragon,” Cheng Chi Lung, generally considered the greatest player to come out of Chinese-Taipei.

The Philippines began its campaign in the tournament by winning convincingly over perennial Asian powerhouse Japan on opening day. The Filipinos followed it up with a hard-fought victory over emerging Asian threat Chinese-Taipei, 95-93. 

Lipa usually deployed a potent starting unit which was anchored on Paras at the middle, backstopped by Asaytono at the 4 spot. Alvarez was Lipa’s penetrator/slasher while Guanio provided the much-needed outside sniping. Orchestrating the plays was Jun Reyes at point guard.

Lipa’s wards again saw action right before the New Year’s Eve festivities when they walloped Hong Kong by 27 points as the Filipinos braced themselves for their biggest game in the competition slated on January 1 against South Korea.

With a 3-0 record, the Philippines still had two games remaining in its schedule. A win versus the Koreans would assure the Philippines of a spot in the finals and render its last outing in the preliminary round against China a non-bearing game. 

The Filipinos left nothing to chance as they came out with guns blazing to depose the defending champion Koreans, 107-96. By the time the Philippines faced the only other unbeaten squad in the tournament, archrival China, both teams were already guaranteed seats in the championship and merely used the game to size each other up. China prevailed over the hosts, 75-72, to preserve its immaculate record.

The finals was expected to be a tight contest between the two most dominant teams in the competition. However, with main man Paras battling early foul trouble, the Filipinos proved easy pickings to the bigger Chinese, who pulled away to a comfortable 81-67 win.

By the end of the competition, Paras served warning to the rest of the Asian field that he was going to be a major force in future regional competitions as he emerged as the country’s top scorer with 16.83 points a game. He would make the senior national team in 1987 along with his youth teammates Asaytono, Alvarez, Guanio, and Realubit. – Rappler.com