By NIMROD NL QUIÑONES
Playing a sport is one of the great ways to get together. For alumni of a school, this has become of the means to get more people involved in the activities.
Having organized many gatherings of my grade school and high school classmates, I know how tough it is to get people to attend a meeting. There are always lots of reasons why not that it would sometimes reach a point that I would feel like I am forcing them to like their old classmates.
Of course, there are others who like the idea of being with people they grew up with. But getting together for lunch or dinner or coffee or drinks can get boring also.
The first to introduce an alumni basketball league was Sacred Heart School for Boys, which is now the SHS-Ateneo de Cebu.
A few years after the SHABA was born the University of San Carlos Boys High School alumni also started their own and then the Cebu Eastern College alumni followed.
Among the three, it has been that of CEC, which I got to follow closely as I do some sportscasting for the CEC Alumni Basketball Association for the TV coverage of some of their games.
Through this league, I also made many friends even if I don’t come from their school.
After a brief hiatus, the CECABA is back this year and once again, I get to watch some of the games and cover them for SkyCable TV.
Yes, I also get to count how many three-point shots they make during a game especially with Chester Cokaliong playing.
I have covered five games of the team and Chester has only made field goals from the three-point area and he has made many of them. He even made 17 three-point baskets in one game.
The CECABA requires teams to field all players who show up for the game. This means that no matter what happens you get some playing time.
For this season of the CECABA there will be 120 games in the elimination round and 24 more in the playoffs. They also have an all-star game.
Coming together to play beats all those meetings with your former classmates in terms of having fun.
From my experience with my high school classmates, the activities we enjoyed most are those spent in the firing range or at sea.
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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings go to my dear cousin Joyce Lebumfacil-Mangisaca. The same goes to Cora Coronado-Seno, Me-mye Reyes-Cavada, Holly Dale Bandala, and Snyder Su.
More power to all of you!
