ALL roads lead to the town of Saint Bernard in Southern Leyte for the St. Isidore Fiesta Cup to be held from May 25-28 in cooperation with Local Government Unit (LGU) officials led by the Honorable Municipal Mayor Napoleon Lim Cuaton and Reverend Father Joselito Catubig, the St. Isidore Parish Priest.
The St. Isidore Fiesta Cup, which is being dubbed as “the place where champions meet,” is the biggest basketball event to be held in Leyte. Organizing the event is Van Halen Puray Parmis, the multi-titled Panalay King bench strategist who currently also serves as an assistant coach with the reigning Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (CESAFI) titlist University of the Visayas.
Seeing action in the six-team tournament are the UV Green Lancers, the University of San Carlos Warriors, reigning National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titlist San Beda Red Lions, back-to-back University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) runner-up University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers, AC Troopers and Omega PRO.
The four-day competitions are being held in conjunction with the Saint Bernard town fiesta from May 20-31 in honor of its beloved Patron Saint, St. Isidore The Worker. The fiesta is more of a thanksgiving for the town folk’s abundant harvest in its rich farmland and ocean resources.
Aside from Cuaton and Father Catubig, the other members of the Fiesta Executive Committee are Necitas M. Lompot, Rosalinda A. Araneta, Mona Q. Comaya, Jocelyn L. Bungcaras and Eralin P. Caday.
Heading the UV team, which represented the Philippines in the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russian Federation, are playmaker de luxe John Michael Abad and bulky frontliner Hernan (Wowie) Escosio. The Green Lancers bucked a 2-0 series deficit before defeating the then-reigning titlist Southwestern University Cobras, 3-2, during the best-of-five CESAFI Finals last year.
Placing third in the 2013 CESAFI wars were the University of San Carlos Warriors. Multi-titled San Beda College, which is powered by cerebral guard Baser Amer, power forward Arthur Dela Cruz and African import Ola Adeogun, downed the Colegio de San Juan de Letran Knights, 2-1, during the 2013 NCAA Finals for their fourth straight championship and seventh in eight seasons. The Red Lions are the winningest men’s team in NCAA history.
UST settled for runner-up finishes in the UAAP during the 2012 and 2013 campaigns, dropping the Finals against Ateneo and De La Salle, respectively. The Growling Tigers have since hired a new head coach in Bong Dela Cruz after Pido Jarencio quit the team to join Globalport in the PBA.
The AC Troopers are composed of commercial players from the old Liga Pilipinas. Omega Pro is a mixture of veterans from Liga Pilipinas, PBA D-League, Asean Basketball League and employs foreign imports.
The teams participating in the Leyte tournament are thankful of the support extended to them – San Beda College (MPL Petron), UST (Kissbone Cove), Omega Pro (Avendula Purified Water), University of San Carlos (Anistar), AC Troopers (Liga ng mga Barangay) and the University of the Visayas (Global Gasoline Station).
Parmis also would like to thank those entities that have helped him organize the St. Isidore Fiesta Cup such as CM Farm, Barangay Natumolan, Raco, Bayugan City, Oroquieta City, Baybay City, PGMC Miners, Bongsal, Tagoloan Tigers, Buenavista Agusan, Montana Pawnshop, MBU Meatshoppe, DM Cellshop, Maricar Apartment, Roble Shipping Inc., Ebcal Construction and Globe Communications.