I got this email from Coach Eric Altamirano last Monday, and I figured that readers of this blog would be interested to hear updates from him on the preparations of the youth program for the upcoming Fiba-Asia U-18 championships in September.

Hi Jaemark,

Congratulations on your sports blog. My apologies for not acknowledging any sooner your kind remarks last December about what we are doing with the youth basketball program of the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas.

As you have already mentioned, the Nokia U-16 team placed fourth in the Fiba U-16 championship. We were a game short of a medal, but I think this should not take anything away from what we have achieved with the team in a matter of months. We were able to get enough seasoning the players through a camp in Australia and sharpen their fundamentals through the Nike Elite Camp. We might not have achieved this without the support of TAO Corporation (the largest distributor of Nokia phones in RP) and Nokia Philippines.

You might be familiar with the names in that lineup like Kiefer Ravena, Jeron Teng, Paolo Romero, Cedric Labing-Isa, Mike Tolomia, Kevin Ferrer, Roldan Sara, Von Pessumal, Gelo Alolino, Jeoffrey Javillonar, Nestor Bantayan and Michael Pate. Their names might not ring much for now, except for Ravena and Teng, but I’m sure that international experience has worked wonders to their game as they move up the basketball ladder.

This time, I am forming the Nokia U-18 team (with hopefully majority of the Nokia U-16 players) for the Fiba-Asia U-18 championships in September. There’s also the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore (August) in which the Philippines was given a wildcard slot based on our minor achievement in Johor Bahru.

Admittedly, things are even more difficult in U-18. If U-16 players are practically boys, the U-18 players are close to being grown men. While speed and teamwork helped us (we needed to go full court in our offensive sets to offset our lack of height) in the U-18, we might need to add a few more inches to our frontcourt to match up with big men from other countries. That is why I am still in the lookout for tall Filipino players locally or foreign players of Filipino descent in this age group to help us in this regard. I even joked in Johor Bahru that we might need a pill to make our players grow taller.

I couldn’t agree with you more on the fact the most big time players come from the provinces. And for this, I thank the SBP, Tao and Nokia Philippines for helping me out in establishing the Nokia National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) D-League. It’s not your garden-variety league in which the end-all is always winning the title. We come up with unified training programs for the 108 teams and also for the coaches. I believe that in a few years time, we might see more fundamentally-sound players and coaches through this technology transfer during the Nokia NBTC D-League. It is rewarding that the provinces have acknowledged the importance of the Nokia NBTC D-League as a feeder program for leagues like the UAAP, NCAA, PBA, PBL and Liga. Having more fundamentally-sound players in the future is definitely a win-win for everyone who loves basketball.

Thanks for being a believer.

Anyone out there know a tall Fil-Am prospect who’s under 18 years old?