Stories tagged
‘basketball’

The pressures and perks of being a UAAP star athlete

by Charlene Dy

KURT BACHMANN was living his dream as one of the players of the legendary Yco basketball team when an injury to the knee during a practice for the National Team cut his sports career short. He was only 27 years old when he bid the game goodbye.

But Bachmann, who used to be a star player at De La Salle University, had left college with a commerce degree in hand, and he used this along with his relative fame to get jobs at respected companies. More than 40 years later, Bachmann is the president of Mantrade, which includes a Nissan car dealership.

Read more… | Posted Tuesday, December 20th, 2005
For the love of basketball

How far can college teams bend the rules?

by Charlene Dy

THERE WERE the usual drums and pep squads, frenetic dancing, and teenagers and grown men bellowing school cheers. For the La Salle community, however, this year’s “Animo Night” had particular poignancy.

Last October, a shadow was cast on the integrity of the prestigious private university when it revealed that two players in its men’s basketball team had faked their high-school equivalency tests to gain admission to the college. The school was still licking its wounds when its alumni gathered for “Animo Night” on Nov. 18, although by the time it ended, there was a sea of fists pumping in the air at the St. Benilde gym as more than 1,000 La Sallians sang “One Voice.”

Read more… | Posted Monday, December 19th, 2005

Even non-betting youths see nothing wrong with gambling

by Booma B. Cruz and Yvonne T. Chua

AS OFFICIALS of private high schools and colleges across Metro Manila grapple with the growing problem of sports gambling among their students, one mother has tried to take comfort in the fact that her teenaged son, unlike most of his classmates, has shown no interest in placing any bet. But she is nevertheless upset, she says, because the boy sees nothing wrong with what his classmates are doing.

Read more… | Posted Tuesday, June 15th, 2004

High-stakes gambling invades private schools

by Booma B. Cruz and Yvonne T. Chua

FIFTEEN-year-old Robert is every mother’s ideal son. He is responsible, obedient, kind, and generally well-behaved-traits that did not escape his classmates who chose him as class president.

About a month ago, though, Robert’s mother, Sophia, noticed that he had become unusually quiet and withdrawn. “I thought he had been jilted,” recalls Sophia. “And then his elder brother told me that my son had a problem and that I should to talk to him.”

Read more… | Posted Monday, June 14th, 2004