AMIABLE Van Halen Parmis, known to prominent hoops personalities in the Visayas and Mindanao landscape as the “Panalay King” for having won numerous basketball championships in various tournaments and leagues outside of Imperial Manila through the years, steered the barnstorming Natumolan Eagles to a “four-peat” recently.
In the fourth Mayor Paulino Yap Emano’s Cup held in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental on Dec. 1-7, the Eagles swept all seven games from the elimination round to the finals to romp away with the title for the fourth year in a row.
In the finals, Natumolan edged Bongsal, 91-89, and took home P250,000 for its triumphant performance.
Among the collegiate standouts and ex-professional cagers that donned the Natumolan colors were two-time Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Most Valuable Player Willie Miller, Mark Yee, Reed Juntilla, Dino Daa, Jonathan Fernandez, JR Gerilla, Jovanie Aguilar, Stephen Padilla, Hafer Mondragon and University of the Visayas Green Lancers stars Jun Manzo and Steve Akomo and Cameroonian Akomo’s co-foreign recruit Emanuel Ojoula, a native of Nigeria who is headed for Naga Foundation College.
Parmis, who has collected nearly 80 championship hardware in his humongous trophy case during his six years of X-ing and O-ing, was assisted on the bench by Jojo Belano.
Parmis also has been moonlighting as a UV assistant coach for the past three years under former bench boss Felix (Donbel) Belano (Jojo’s younger brother) and now under new coach Gary Cortes.
Yee knocked in 27 points, Juntilla tallied 20, Miller chipped in 14 and Padilla totaled 11 for the high-flying Eagles of Natumolan barangay captain Enan Sabio and his first lady Rita May Sabio.
Juntilla, who saw action in the PBA for four seasons (2007-11), was voted the tournament MVP.
Patrick Cabahug, who played for Air21 in the PBA in 2010-11, topscored for Bongsal with 35 markers.
Three other ex-PBAers carried the Bongsal colors. Abraham (Abi) Santos, a Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texter in 2006-07, and Frederick (Erick) Rodriguez, a three-year vet (2008-11) in Asia’s first professional cage league, contributed 15 and 10 scores, respectively, Ron Capati, who suited up for Coca-Cola in his lone PBA campaign in 2005-06, had nine points.
For the 32-year-old Parmis, the sky’s the limit insofar as his coaching career is concerned.
It seems fair to say that the best has yet to come for this product of Baybay City, Leyte.
Parmis’ only “problem” at the moment is how to put up a bigger showcase for the growing number of trophies he has earned since 2008.
Tim Cone, are you listening?