PBA legends conduct basketball clinic for kids in Philex mining community

BENGUET, Philippines — Ball handling, dribbling, passing, defense. These were some of the movements on a basketball court that young boys from the Padcal community learned last week from legendary hoop stars, who won a friendly game with the youth of Philex Mining Corp.’s mine site in this province.

“But it’s discipline that’s most important,” coach Elias Aguilar told about 60 students of Philex Mines Elementary School (PMES) and other kids living at Padcal who participated in the basketball clinic he conducted on August 11 together with 10 of the best players to have come from the PBA. “You must listen to your coach—that’s the first rule.”

Besides teaching kids various athletic stances necessary to becoming a good basketball player, participants were told their strength and conditioning is the foundation of their game — from shooting to dribbling to defense — since the best players are in the best shape.



“It was so exciting,” Henrik Evangelista, a Grade IV pupil at PMES, said of his participation during theone-hour basketball clinic. While he is too young to have witnessed Marlou Aquino’s heyday as part of Sta. Lucia and Ginebra in the PBA, he saw many of his idol’s games on video. “It was really nice seeing him in person.”

The 6-foot-9 Aquino joined Bal David, Vince Hizon, Jerry Codiñera, Bong Hawkins, Nelson Asaytono, Kenneth Duremdes, Poch Juinio, Rodney Santos, and Alvin Patrimonio at the basketball clinic held at the open court of Philex Sports Center.

A downpour sent the PBA legends packing to the covered court of St. Louis High School-Philex, where they regaled the Padcal community in a friendly game against a youth basketball team called Philex Gold Miners. The visitors won over their hosts, 87-75, but did not break the hearts of their audiences, who took turns in posing for souvenir photos with the revered cagers and obtaining the autographs of their idols.

“It was such a privilege to have played with them,” Brinell Aquino, 24, who works as a maintenance plumber at the Mill Division of Padcal, said. He was so elated to have met his idol, David, the 5-foot-9 former point guard of Ginebra. “To me he has the best dribbling and passing skills — which I really would want to emulate.”

The 6-foot-2 Hizon thanked Philex Mining for giving him and his friends and former colleagues the chance to impart some of their skills and knowledge to the kids and youth of Padcal. He elicited standing ovations from the audience when he showed them his clutch three-point shooting and slashing drives to the basket during the friendly game.

“This is nice — what Philex Mining is doing, you know, inspiring the youth to do sports and become better at it,” said Aguilar, who runs the Coach Elias Aguilar Basketball Camp for interested students and youths nationwide. “This is one proof that Philex Mining really is serious in fulfilling its programs in corporate social responsibility.”

(InterAKTV is part of InterAksyon.com, the news website of TV5, which like Philex, is chaired by Manuel V. Pangilinan.)

Source: http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/pba-legends-conduct-basketball-clinic-for-kids-in-philex-mining-community