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There’s
traveling in basketball. Just ask Amira Quintanilla Abou
Issa. All six feet and two inches of her.
Amira,
as she asks to be called, hails from Raleigh, North
Carolina, a coastal city by the Atlantic Ocean. “We
don’t have beaches like they have in
California, but it’s still pretty much a fun place to go to,” she
related during an interview at the
Regalia
Towers in Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City. Issa is
billeted there along with fellow Fil-Americans Melissa
Jacob and Vicki Brick, who will be joining the
Philippine Women’s Basketball Team to the Bangkok
Southeast Asian Games this December. “I tried to take up
surfing until I got hit by a board on the head. I guess
that was it for me and surfing because I concentrated on
tennis and basketball from there.”
She was
born to a Filipina mother and Syrian father in the
United States and played Division III hoops for Meredith
College from 2002-’06. “I enrolled in Meredith and
actually played two sports—tennis and basketball,” she
recounted of her affinity for sports, but my height sort
of pushed me toward hoops.”
After
graduation (Amira took up International Business and
Spanish), she took part in a couple of training camps in
the Women’s National Basketball Association but instead
she found herself playing in Bulgaria. “I actually never
got to play because the club I went to released me
because of sponsorship problems,” she recalled of the
unfortunate incident. “I found out that this often
happens to American players who try to play overseas. So
instead I put in my time teaching English and Spanish to
Bulgarians. I got my certification and could actually
use it to find a job later on.”
Like her
fellow Fil-Americans Brick and Jacob, Amira received an
invitation via e-mail from Samahang Basketbol ng
Pilipinas executive director Patrick Gregorio. “I was
thinking of going to law school, but I couldn’t pass up
this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she gleefully
relates.
Jacob
who went to the University of California-Irvine, says
that she was likewise excited about the opportunity to
play for the Philippines. “An opportunity is an
opportunity,” says the girl from
Orange
County.
“MJ” as she’s been nicknamed, was born in the
United States
but her parents hail from Alaminos, Pangasinan. “Dad
just loved to cook those traditional Filipino foods. She
will share point guard duties on the Fritz
Gaston-mentored team with Joanne Grajales, Emilia Vega
and Vicky Brick. “She can shoot,” marveled national team
center Cassy Tioseco of Jacob. Tioseco who is on her
second tour of duty wearing the national colors, says
that the inclusion of the Fil-Ams will hopefully augur
well for RP women’s basketball. “In the last Seaba, the
other countries didn’t know what to expect from us.
After we beat Thailand in the opening game everyone
began to play us hard. We don’t know about their
reinforcements, but neither do they know about us.”
Vicky
Brick, the former Maryland Lady Terrapin point guard
(she played from 1999-2004) who caught the women’s
basketball world by surprise with her inclusion in the
Philippine lineup, concurs. “I heard that every team has
beefed up their lineups. We’re not just thinking about
getting back at one team but playing everyone equally
hard.”
Brick,
who played recently with the Sydney Flames in Australia
and idolizes former Houston Comet Cynthia Cooper and
Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash, is not stranger to
hard work. Growing up in
Baltimore
where she knew current Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo
Anthony, Brick was a gym rat. “I played serious tennis
buff who nearly went to the Chris Evert Tennis Academy.
I enjoyed soccer, too, and if I had any time away from
sports, my parents would say, ‘Let’s hit the gym.’ So
that’s me—a fitness buff.”
But by
the time she was graduating from high school, letters of
interest from colleges began pouring in. “I eventually
decided that I’d have more fun in basketball,” she
smiles.
Basketball has allowed the three girls to reconnect with
their Filipino roots. While in Bulgaria, Amira alone and
far from the comfort zone of family and friends was
advised to go to the nearest local Catholic Church.
“That’s where I’d find other Filipinos,” she says with a
laugh. “Even back in
North Carolina,
I was exposed to the traditional cultural dances. I even
learned how to dance the tinikling.”
Now that
they’re playing for Team Philippines they are hoping
that the media attention they and women’s basketball
receives will help the game grow in the country. “Every
bit of help for the game will mean well for us and for
the sport,” says Brick.
And when
it comes to Philippine women’s basketball, “In the Seaba
a gold would have been really really great, but a
silver—when you consider the country’s history in the
sport—isn’t so bad. Now hopefully, we’ll do it one
better this time now that MJ and Amira are with us,”
sums up Brick who is clearly enjoying her stay and stint
with the country.
“After
all it’s an opportunity to travel and see places,”
concludes Amira Issa. |
