MANILA – An Iloilo City-based sports management agency aims to develop young Western Visayas-based basketball players in hopes of fulfilling their dreams of playing in Manila.
Eugene Chua, one of the co-founders of Elite Lab, said they are training cagers while also giving them educational scholarship at St. Roberts International Academy and Western Institute of Technology.
“Elite Lab has been doing this for two years now. Since the pandemic, some of our players naka in-house so tuloy-tuloy ang ensayo nila,” Chua told Panay News on Friday.
“We are doing this for the love of basketball. Gusto namin silang makita na maabot ‘yung dreams nila to play in Manila by developing not just their basketball skills but also their character,” he added.
“We have many friends na coaches sa Manila schools and universities and we can recommend them there if their style of plays will fit dun sa school na interested sa kanila,” he further said.
Chua shared that, currently, they have a total of 24 players from elementary, high school and college training under the guidance of head coach John Guanco.
Chua added that, once in a while, they were also travelling to play road games and they recently went to Bacolod City to play friendly matches with All-Star Bacolod Ballers and some local teams.
“We are setting up friendly matches for them because we want to see yung learnings na nakuha nila and also we want them to experience high-level competition,” he said.
Chua said they are still open to add more players to their roster but they are currently focusing on young basketball cagers from Western Visayas.
“We are still accepting new players to develop pero so far dito muna sa Region 6. They can message me at my Facebook account or at the Elite Lab page,” Chua said.
“But we are strict with our rules. As much as possible, we do not want players with vices. Also we prefer players with good character and that education also is important. If not, kahit na talented pa ay inaalis namin sa group,” he added./PN
