THE other day, a good friend of mine, Rafa Dinglasan tagged me in a photo that showed where four of the Mythical Five from this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) are Africans. He wondered if there was a way to honor both foreign and local players separately. Talking about it, Rafa sees nothing wrong with foreign players. Like me, as well.
Let me present my case.
For years, foreign players have been allowed to suit up. As early as when all the collegiate leagues were founded last century, they were allowed. In the not-too-distant past, there was Far Eastern University (FEU) winning with Anthony Williams and University of Santo Tomas (UST) winning football titles with Spanish striker Joaquin Valdez not to mention Africans and Middle Eastern players in the 1980s. We’ve seen Americans from Faith Academy suit up for various schools—Kirk Long, Vince Burke and Moriah Gingerich, to name some. University of the Philippines (UP) had a Brazilian player in Rob Bornancin. In the early years of the new millennium, University of the East (UE) had a 7-foot African in Omar Ali but they never won anything.
Now that schools have weaponized them there’s a call for a clamp down.
It wasn’t too long ago when La Salle started bringing in Filipino-Americans (Fil-Ams) en masse did the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) react. If there isn’t an uproar about foreign players, then it’s about Fil-Ams. Yes, even to this day, many homegrown players complain about their influx. Even in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), people complain about too many Fil-Ams. No, this isn’t speculation or I heard from so and so. I hear it straight up.
I think this insular type of thinking is wrong. And it’s reactionary. Let’s get the facts straight.
During NCAA Season 91, three of the Mythical Five were local boys—Scottie Thompson, Jio Jalalon and Arthur de la Cruz. In Season 90 Thompson was Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the only foreign player in the Mythical Five was San Beda’s Ola Adeogun.
The knock on the Red Lions is that they only win because of their foreign players. People forget that in Sudan Daniel’s last year, the Red Lions defeated Calvin Abueva’s San Sebastian team with an all-Filipino crew. And there were the Letran nights of two years ago.
Let’s jump over to the UAAP.
Last season National University’s (NU) Alfred Aroga was the only foreign player in the UAAP to be included in that honor. In Seasons 75 to 77, there was UST’s Karim Abdul. In Season 71, NU’s Jean Mbe was a part of the Mythical Five.
Despite having Africans in the league since season Season 71, it was only in Season 77 and 78 where teams with one of them won. In Season 78 Aroga was Finals MVP and last year it was FEU’s Mac Belo. Even when NU won it, they did so, not solely because of Aroga but because of heady veterans like Troy Rosario, Glenn Khobuntin and Gelo Alolino.
Let’s look in other collegiate leagues.
In the just-concluded National Athletic Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (Naascu) where Saint Clare College unseated Centro Escolar University (CEU) with a crew that had an African who didn’t even star for their team. The league’s MVP was a reed-thin forward named Aris Dionisio of Saint Clare who was a regular double-double producer. The Saints defeated the Our Lady of Fatima University Phoenix squad with an African who was a major part but not the Man or even second option for them. Their Mythical Five? All Filipino.
Last season CEU’s Rod Ebondo was Naascu MVP but all the other Mythical Players were Filipino. CEU was good because they had a good coach, a sound program and players who gained a lot of exposure playing in the D-League and the Filoil summer tourney where they played elite competition. That is why they were champions for several years.
Over at Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi), the University of San Carlos (USC) ended a 57-year title drought last season by defeating perennial champion University of Visayas. Sure they had MVP Shooster Olago of Cameroon. But he didn’t get the job done alone. Power forward Charles Pepito joined him in the Mythical Five, along with Southwestern University’s (SWU) Mark Tallo, University of San Jose-Recoletos’s (USJR) Jude Dionalan and University of Visayas’ (UV) Leonard Santillan.
From 2013 to 2014, Tallo was league MVP despite the presence of African Landry Sanjo. The 2014 Mythical team featured Tallo, Sanjo, USC’s Victor Rabat, USJR’s Kevin Villafranca and UV’s John Abad. Okay, granted that it was only last season where they allowed a foreign player to win an award.
In case you want to know, when SWU had Ben Mbala, they didn’t win the title.
So let’s examine this. The foreign standouts have been more prevalent in the NCAA as opposed to the other leagues. And is it only now that you’ve had four of five Mythical Five awardees. Sign of things to come? That’s speculation at this point.
If there is concern that these foreign players are stat stuffers, then just have a Best Foreign Player Award, limit the height or even the number to one player per team. But banning them? Even International Basketball Federation, International Football Federation and other international sports bodies allow naturalization. Many, many other countries allow foreign students to compete in their leagues. If that’s the case, let’s not naturalize any American…go all-Filipino in international basketball competition.
What’s this feeling? Afrexit? Yeah, we have our own Brexit going locally, don’t we?
It’s funny reading comments like “I heard they have no legitimate papers” or “there are undiscovered local players”. It’s all speculation, your honor. If we go by that line of thinking, I heard (in fact, I know so) that most of these student-athletes regardless of ethnicity DO NOT GO TO CLASS. Maybe that is an even bigger issue. So much for schools looking to educate kids.
Maybe foreign players are a problem. Maybe they aren’t. But knee-jerk reactions, like banning players, aren’t right. With what the president is saying about severing relations with the US, European Union, the United Nations…I guess, that kind of thinking reflects, too, on Philippine college sports.