Homegrown and Away

The singing of the alma mater began in the mid-70’s with that great high school team of Manolito Valdez and Chito Narvasa. The tradition of chanting “no classes” after a championship started also with the one captained by Nolet Puno.

When I was in high school, it seemed that every year, the Blue Eaglets were winning the juniors title. By the time we moved to college, well… we weren’t winning although we had the makings of a good team. My batch… Jun Reyes, Alex Araneta, my longtime classmate Joseph Canlas, Jet Nieto, and Jay Gayoso brought in a lot of firepower to the seniors team that still had Mike Facundo, Rey Rances, Haj Jeongco, and Nonoy Chuatico.

What many people fail to understand, at the heart of the Ateneo champion teams were a high school core aided by recruits, transferees, and intramurals pick-ups from other institutions of learning. After World War II, the Blue Eagles would barnstorm the country for fund-raisers and incidentally to attract potential recruits. While provincial teams wanted to knock off the Ateneans off their perch, they too wanted to wear them dress blues.

Some of the players who went to Ateneo because of this were Fermin Fernando from Zamboanga, Chole Gaston from Negros, and Felix Flores from Iloilo.

We also had a heaping helping of transferees to Ateneo especially from La Salle. We had Manolo Dauden who was one of the toughest guys not just in sports but in fisticuffs. He joined the Ateneo duo of Eddie Wilson and Dick Powell who traded more than trash with Letran’s Benny Mendoza and San Beda’s Linggoy Atayde.

Because the Ateneo was a smaller school it actually helped breed tough and strong teams. If you look at the 1954 Ateneo NCAA Football Champs under former Atletico Bilbao coach Teo Erenchun and the great Louie Javellana (who also went to La Salle for high school), you will see some familiar names who also played on the Blue Eagles 1954 title team.

Here’s that line up:
Dave Arcenas (whose son Paul later played for the Blue Booters)
Louie Tanjangco
Dick Ildefonso (yes the former broadcaster)
Benjie Mendoza
Rusty Cacho (who they affectionately called "Kalawang" in school)
Manny Bravo
Rafa Ortigas
Teddy Yulo
Dionisio Mapa
Jorge Lacson (uncle of later 96' champ team keeper Rely San Agustin)
Willie Wong (his brother Henry would later play for the team as well)
Manolo Dauden
Ben Lara
Vic Sison (whose son Philip also played for the football team and is now an Ateneo Sports Shooter)
Jon Rotaeche
Dick Chua
Cayo Emnas (whose son later was in the Blue Babble Battalion during its revival in the 1980's)
Jun Mapa
Ramy Paterno

SHAMELESS PLUG! Since I mentioned football, here's a vid we did for the three-peat champs that includes a legacy storyline.

Incidentally, Rusty Cacho also went to San Beda for his elementary education before moving to Loyola Heights for high school and college. And he was the team captain for the Blue Eagle squad that prevented San Beda from winning three straight in 1953.

Many of those names on that team played for the track, baseball, and basketball teams too. And that toughened them up if not help with chemistry.

The move from the NCAA to the UAAP had a negative effect on the college teams. Demoralized by the move to what was then deemed “an inferior league,” the team’s best players opted out leaving the squad with a makeshift squad. There was no Blue Babble Battalion to cheer them on. The only ones watching were family and friends. Being a cellar dweller didn’t help any. But that changed when Chito Narvasa and later Chito Afable came back to coach the college teams. There was finally some fight in the teams.

But the late 80’s the question was, are we going to win with a predominantly homegrown team? The other teams were clearly beginning to pass us by. We had the occasional blue chip target recruit but we more often than not lost them to another school. Allan Caidic was ours but he moved on to UE. We tried to get Benjie Paras but he instead went to UP. We did pick up Len Mumar and Eric Reyes (who first went to the Ateneo Grade School before moving to LSGH) from that school along Ortigas but we hit a dry spot in recruiting high impact rooks until Vince Hizon, whose relatives are Ateneans, came back from America.

We had a lot of great high school players but more oft than not, they became increasingly undersized as compared to the players from the other schools who came from the provinces.

I think that what has happened now is that once in a decade, we produce a great team out of the high school that serves as a backbone for the seniors squad. But after the batch of Enrico Villanueva graduated, we’ve seen a huge drop off in terms of high school talent. Many of the players we produce now are guards or tweeners who are suspect coming into college. This is where the Ateneo Basketball School, run by Ricky Dandan is crucial. Like the Ateneo Football Center, it produces players who will come up through the system before moving on to the senior ranks. We’ve seen that with guys like Larry Fonacier and now Jay Dumrique and Juami Tiongson.

But for all of Larry’s court smarts and being a clutch player, he still needed a Rich Alvarez, LA Tenorio, and Magnum Membrere to win.