The Lions clashed with the Cardinals at 2 P.M. after United States Ambassador Kristie Kenney graced the Association’s inaugurals as a guest speaker. Scoring 85 points against the Cardinals’ 52.

Riego Gamalinda and Sudan Daniel scored 14 and 13 points, respectively, to lead the Red Lions in season opener before jam packed Araneta Coliseum. Meanwhile, Mark Acosta and Paul Cinco of the Cardinals, scored with 10 points each.

“I felt a lot of pressure. I expect the next games to be more challenging. I need to step up my rebounding,” said Daniel, the six-foot-eight American rookie who is expected to replace last year’s MVP Sam Ekwe as the starting center.

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Every school wants to win.  Every school wants to have a trophy. Every school wants fame. Yet only few schools understand that, in order to, they need to put the right pieces together; they need  jocks that can deliver, they need the effective programs to help them, and they need an elite-level head coach on the team.

In this article, I’ll share what I learned from the past five years that I played for college the things I think every school needs to have in order to win.

Athletic Program

Implement a good recruitment program. To win a championship you need good players and to have good players you need to have a good recruitment program. Because if you don’t have a good recruitment program, it’s almost as good as saying you’ll never recruit good players. But still, few schools implement a good recruitment program and we can understand why, because it’s costly. Schools need to shell out more money for it because they need to send out more scouts in different places to look for potential athletes.

Schools like FEU, Letran and UST goes to different province just to look for potential players. Often times, their scouts and coaches goes to regional tournaments and Palarong Pambansa where they recruit athletes that finish at the top.

How does it help? Let’s take a look at Cleveland Cavaliers for example, LeBron James is a great player but there’s no one who he can truly rely on if he’s covered. One good player may be able to do it but it’s hard. Recruit good players and then look for championships.

Provide effective training program. Even if your players are good they still need to improve. That’s the beauty of sports, there is a certain level of competitiveness at any one time and it’s raised every now and then.

How does it help? Eventually, with an effective training program, we’ll soon see good athlete’s evolve into (or even better) Micheal Jordan, Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods or Paeng Nepumuceno.

The importance of a coach. It doesn’t matter if it’s a singles or a team competition, every athlete knows how important a coach is. A good coach knows how to use players effectively, they know how to train athletes to reach their full potential and they know what to do on every situations in the game.

Provide athlete’s proper nutritional diet. Proper diet, including carbohydrates and proteins intake provides the  required energy athletes needs in order to excel.

Raise school spirit. There’s a reason why cheer leading was invented. Players needs to be cheered, they need to be motivated. Raising school spirit raises a player’s morale and their athletic skills during the game. Let the students in your school watch the games of their classmates,  let them be proud of themselves.

Academic Program

By far, the most often neglected and the most important program every school should provide to their athletes.

I personally believe people think that the better a student athlete plays the lesser his performance are in academics. People equate athletic skills to academic skills like that. I confess I do and I’m afraid that it is partly true.

This goes back to how student athletes manage their time, how they balance school and sports. But first, let me ask you a question, suppose  you’re an athlete and you’re a top-caliber player and you or your team have a great chance of winning a championship  in the league your school is a member of. What would you do more, hone your skills or study your notes? Suppose there is a high paying professional league waiting for you when you perform exemplary well during your college years as an amateur athlete, what would you do more, hone your skills or study your notes? Conversely, if there is no professional league in your sports, what would you do? Would you still prefer to do more of sports than academics?

Personally, I think that whatever path our athletes choose to take, schools should provide them with the approriate academic program that suits them .

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Born: March 25
Hometown: Guam, USA
Current residence: Orlando, Florida
Height: 5’1”
Hair Color: Brown
Eye color: Light brown

Shanelle Loraine, a Fil-American Pool Player from Orlando is gaining some popularity not only in the pool world but in the world wide web, too.

Loraine played in the Women’s World 10-Ball Championship held here in the Philippines (June 2-6, 2009), showing her skills to Filipino billiards enthusiasts.

With all those beautiful pool players coming out, Shanelle included, it looks like their having a mini beauty pageant while pooling. She does not belong to the top pool players in the world, as Shanelle Loraine only started playing pool in 2000, but being the #1 women’s player in Guam is good enough for me. She’s a pretty player with nice skills at playing pool plus she pulls a number of audience – an International Pool Star.

Some Shanelle Loraine links

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Now, the fierce rivalry between Ateneo de Manila University and De la Salle University has spilled over into A(H1N1) arena. Sort of.

According to the data from the World Health Organization (WHO), swine flu has spread to 66 countries with 19,273 people known to have been infected since the disease was first uncovered in Mexico in April.

Spread it is.

Last week, CHED moved school opening to June 15 when a foreign student of La Salle was confirmed positive of A(H1N1). A few days later, a second foreign student from La Salle was tested positive for A(H1N1). And on June 10, Ateneo de Manila University suspended its class for ten (10) days when three high school students tested positive for swine flu.

If you’re counting, Ateneo leads La Salle three to two.

(The students responded well to treatments and is reportedly feeling better. I hope this swine flue flies out of our country already.)

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We will see these three guest teams field in players to compete in six (6) mandatory sports – athletics, basketball, cheer leading, football, swimming, and volleyball. If they decide to join other sports disciplines like table tennis and chess they have that option to do so.

Let’s take a look on these three teams.

Emilio Aguinaldo College. This PACUCOA accredited school formerly known as Marian School of Midwifery looks serious in its bid in joining the NCAA. Joining just as a guest team, they already boosted their basketball program by enlisting the service of African import Romeo Fortue.

The Ermita based EAC Generals is a member school of Universities and Colleges Athletic Association (UCAA), a young athletic association that started in 2002 and National Capital Region Athletic Association (NCRAA). Do not think that this rookies of the league will give a little to no pressure to the member schools’ basketball teams,  the Generals was a three-peat basketball champion in the UCAA from 2004-2006. In 2004 EAC Generals defeated PSBA-QC Jaguars, in 2005 EAC Generals defeated DLSU-D Patriots and in 2006 EAC Generals defeated St Francis Doves. The Generals also won a men’s basketball championship in the NCRAA during the academic year 2004-05, defeating San Lorenzo.

Angeles University Foundation. Honestly, I’m surprised that this school wants to be part of NCAA. The school is far from Manila and you know how heavy the traffic is especially during school days. Traveling from Angeles  to Manila would take at least three (3) hours.

Does joining in the oldest athletic association outweighs the burden for both the school and the student-athlete’s? To think of it, AUF will have to spend a chunk of money for travel expenses, while the jocks need to cut their personal life (or study hours) even more. Besides, I don’t know how these long rides will affect the student-athlete’s game performance but this early, I could only guess one thing – poor performance.

Arellano University.  The university that was named for former Chief Justice of the Philippines, Cayetano Arellano, is  already marking its name in the athletic competitions prior to joining in the NCAA as a guest team. Arellano’s basketball team, the Arellano Chiefs won a back-to-back championships in the NCRAA. Spearheaded by former Cardinals’s coach, Leo Isaac, won in 2006 by defeated EAC and in 2007, Arellano defeated St. Francis.

How do you think these three (3) schools will do in the NCAA? Share them below.

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The Mapua table tennis team held an open try-out last Sunday, May 24 at 9:00 A.M. beside the school’s canteen. This is my fifth and last time to hold such event as the captain of the team. It’s tiring but it’s equally fun.

I expected around thirty (30) to fifty (50) participants as it was the usual number during the past years, this time though, we had a mere ten (10) players. I don’t know why the numbers are down, but almost all of them have good skills to show. I guess it’s quality over quantity this time.

Our school offers four (4) playing athletic scholarships to the table tennis team but we’re usually six (6) on the team so that makes us split the four (4) available scholarship among us. When I was moved to the non-playing athletic scholarship this 4th quarter and my teammate opted to study instead to play for his fifth and final playing year, our team freed up two playing scholarship slots. It means, that from the ten (10) participants, there is an almost guarantee that two (2) of them will be recruited and will receive an athletic scholarship.

Reading along this lines, my mind asks me why does the recently re-established Mapua Volleyball Team faithfully practice even without getting any athletic scholarship. Is it because they want to be exempted in the military training and physical education courses? Or they just wish they can play?

I don’t know.

A student’s life inside the walls of Mapua is not a walk in the park, it needs dedication, perseverance, hard work and time. Without getting any benefits outside playing the sport you love, I don’t see any reason they should focus on it. But what gives, I commend them.

Some play to win. Some play for glory. But one thing I’d like to think and I truly believe is that that they, like any other student athlete’s, do it for the love of the game.

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Champion Team gone Kaput.

When the Mapua Men’s Volleyball Team won their last championship in 2002, with no clue, the team was disbanded. It’s such a waste that a team that had just won a championship wouldn’t be able to participate and to defend their title the following academic year. The lone reason that I could think of is that the administration lacks the financial capacity to support athletic scholarships for the student-athletes.

Having a Volleyball Team would require at least six (6) players that can play, but no school would participate with just those amount of players, the very reasonable number of players would be around nine (9) to twelve (12). As such, providing athletic scholarships to that many students would require a handful amount of money.

Since then, the Mapua never joined the the National Collegiate Athletic Association Volleyball Tournament that is played every first semester of the academic year. You won’t find any athlete wearing the Cardinals  logo in the tournament’s three divisions:  Juniors for high school students, Seniors for male college students and Women’s for female college students from school year 2002 to 2008.

Mapua Volleyball Team in the 85th NCAA Tournament.

You read it right, after seven (7) years of absence, Mapua is going to bring in it’s student athlete’s back on the  volleyball court this coming 85th season.

But this time, it’s the girls that will shine.

Mapua is a school better known for being a male dominant school, maybe, just maybe, to boost the number of students in the distaff side, the school chose to include a team not on the men’s but on the women’s division.

I don’t know if it’s the official lineup but looking at the present players  practicing at the gymnasium,  albeit with the inclusion of a former beach volleyball player, I honestly think that they’re a little too shabby, hey, that’s just for me.  Nonetheless, I know they’re the best that the school has to offer and they’re a hard worker so they’ll be fine. They’ve got a big heart and they love the game.

For fellow Mapuans reading this article, let’s take a little look from the past, the Mapua Volleyball Team had won one (1) juniors Volleyball Championship (1978-79) and ten (10) Men’s NCAA Volleyball Championships (1960-61,1965-66,1966-67,1967-68,1968-69,1969-70,1970-71,1974-75,1997-98 and 2001-02). With 11 Championships under the Cardinals’ wings, it looks pale compared with San Sebastian’s 43 but we are still third in the league after Letran’s 24 Championships.

What can you say?

Do you think it’s a good idea that they bring back a sports team instead of planning and implementing a better athletic program for the current sporting events that Mapua currently participates?  And do you think putting up a women’s team instead of a men’s team a better idea (Just so to clear things, I’m not against having the women’s team. Quite the contrary, I’ve been longing for it.)? Share your thoughts below.

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Also called as The Battle of the East and West, this event is a superfight for the International Boxing Organization (IBO) and The Ring light welterweight (super lightweight) championship.

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Results

Erislandy Lara vs Chris Gay – Lara wins over Gray
Matt Korobov vs Anthony Bartinelli – Korobov wins over Bartinelli
Daniel Jacobs vs Micheal Walker -
Humberto Sotto vs -

Manny Pacquiao wins over Ricky Hatton with a knock out in round two 2:59 minustes. Pacquiao wins International Boxing Organization (IBO) and The Ring light welterweight (super lightweight) championship.

Now, if you have a spare time to spend you may want to have fun with me by figuring out this puzzle.

Three sportswriters are in San Francisco for a connecting flight for Pacquiao vs Hatton  game in Las Vegas. They miss their flight to Las Vegas, so they have to crash at a hotel near the airport. One rather seedy looking hotel is offering a deal — $30 for a big room with two beds and a couch. They figure, what the hell, it’s 10 bucks apiece, you can’t beat that.

So they show up at the hotel and give the guy 30 bucks. Then, they get to talking, the guy turns out to be a big Pacquiao fan, so he says: “Guys, you know what? You can have the room for 25 bucks.”

Nice offer. The sportswriters say — “Great. Just give us a buck each and keep the other two for yourself.”

And that’s how it was.

So, explain this… if each sportswriter put in nine bucks ($27) and the hotel guy got two bucks ($27 + $2), where did the other dollar go?

Pacman wins!

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