Where are the Commercial Leagues?

For the average collegiate basketball player here in Cebu, when the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) season ends, so does theirs, leaving them with plenty of idle time but so little in the way of opportunities for exposure to better and tougher competition.

Whereas in Manila, once the UAAP and the NCAA seasons conclude, players have a plethora of commercial basketball tournaments to choose. There’s the Filsports Basketball Association (FBA), the Pilipinas Commercial Basketball League (PCBL), the PBA’s Developmental League and Marikina’s DELeague which features a healthy crop of former PBA players as well as current collegiate stars.

So it should come as no surprise that  basketball players who harbor dreams of making it to the next level often find themselves relocating to Manila where opportunities for improvement are aplenty.

This often leads to the question: where are all the commercial leagues in Cebu now when in the past, it boasted of such competitive leagues such as the Cebu Basketball League, the Cebu Basketball Association and the Cebu Basketball Federation?

“From my point of view, Cebu is getting deprived of commercial leagues certainly because no brave soul has initiated such an undertaking. Although money is very essential in putting up a commercial league, this is something an organizer can remedy by tapping sponsors. So it’s not really money. It boils down to that one person willing to do it,” said University of the Visayas assistant coach Van Halen Parmis, who has carved for himself a reputation as the most successful commercial basketball coach in the country.

Parmis also underscored the need for Cebu to have its own commercial league or run the risk of seeing its crop of talents make the jump to greener pastures.

“Indeed, Cebu needs it more than any other city as we are the breeding ground of sprouting and potential stars in the country. I suggest that the organizers of the CESAFI consider putting up this type of developmental league to develop and display what Cebu brand of basketball is like,” the affable coach added.

Parmis’ sentiments was echoed by successful coach Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba, a long-time champion coach in the commercial ranks before getting back to his collegiate roots when he took over the Southwestern University Cobras.

“Competition at the collegiate level and the commercial level are two different things. Players who play in commercial leagues get better because they get exposed to better players, players who have even played in the PBA,” confessed Alcoseba.
“Here in Cebu, once the PCCL (Philippine Collegiate Champions League) finishes, we don’t have any more leagues. And even in the PCCL, there are only a few teams from Cebu who are given slots there. Wala nay liga kaduwaan ang mga players.”
Alcoseba bared that he is hoping to soon sit down with prominent Cebu basketball stakeholders such as Bogo City Mayor Junie Martinez, Cebu City Sports Commission commissioner Lorenzo “Chao” Sy and basketball patron Joe Soberano, in the hopes of forming such a league.