Alcoseba, Soberano forge partnership to form Cebuano team for newly launched CWBL

JOINING FORCES

Cebu’s rabid basketball community will be well-represented in the upcoming Countrywide Basketball League (CWBL) with a team being manned by two of Cebu’s most powerful sports personalities – champion head coach Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba and sports patron Joe Soberano.

The CWBL of  Rey Gamboa and coaching great Joe Lipa was officially set into motion on Monday during a contract signing with multimedia giant ABS-CBN.

The league is expected to roll out in the early part of next year with the focus on giving players who are caught in between college and the higher leagues the exposure they need.

Not one to let the opportunity to give Cebuano players a shot at making it to the big leagues, Alcoseba and Soberano—rivals during the now-defunct Liga Pilipinas with the former heading the powerful M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Ninos and the latter bankrolling the Cebu Landmasters-Mandaue—have forged a partnership to form the M. Lhuillier-Cebu Landmasters Cebu Province team.

According to Alcoseba, he will be staging several tryouts immediately after the end of the Cesafi season with the focus on tapping players from the province of Cebu to play for the aforementioned squad.

The development goes in line with the CWBL’s thrust to give players who have already graduated from college and are still aiming to continue their basketball careers, a chance to compete and hopefully move on to the next level.

“For the collegiate players, we already have the UAAP, the NCAA and the Cesafi in Cebu. The PBA is for the pros. But we don’t have anything for those players who are in between. This league is designed to cater to those players,” said Joe Lipa in a previous interview.

Lipa is the league’s vice-president and the general manager for basketball operations while Gamboa will be acting as the league’s chairman.

The duo brings with them a wealth of experience in the realm of basketball competitions.

They are also responsible for organizing the successful Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL), the country’s biggest gathering of collegiate basketball squads held annually after the end of the collegiate leagues.
Eight teams are expected to compete in the inaugural staging of the league.

Foreign players are not allowed to play although Filipino-foreign players are welcome, provided they have the necessary paperwork. An age limit—32 years old—has also been set by the league.