The 1984-85 Ateneo Blue Eaglets

The 1984-85 Ateneo Blue Eaglets

 by rick olivares

When the Ateneo de Manila left the NCAA in the late 1970’s, it was the college program that was most affected in terms of athletics. For the Ateneo High School, it was business as usual.

The Blue Eaglets continued their supremacy in the juniors level as they won the crown in their very first year of UAAP competition in 1978.

During school year 1983-84, the Blue Eaglets captured their fourth UAAP Juniors crown against UST. Eight players graduated from that class led by team captain Nolet Puno and Raffy Veloso.*

There were five holdovers left from that title squad -- Jun Reyes, Jay Gayoso, Alex Araneta, Randy Sevilla, and Germs Sanchez. There was a fifth member of that ’83-‘84 team – Chim Sison -- but he was over-aged by the time the ’84-’85 season rolled around.

Those who made the team that season included call-ups from the 1984 Champions PAYA squad:  Juergen Facundo, Sep Canlas, Abet Nolido, Julius Cendaña, Jet Nieto, Robbie Tanjuatco, Bing Arroyo, Jun Oledan, and Albert Mendoza with the latter two being Juniors at that time.

The Eaglets were still coached by Rafael Dimalanta with Thor Lim as his assistant for the second straight year. The four student managers were Ronald Baron, Mike Garcia, Brian Ocampo, and Vitri de Villa. As for Sison, he still found a way to be involved with the team, as was named the official scorer for the team.

Heading into the new UAAP basketball season, Ateneo was the favorite to win the title. But other squads were ready to dispute that. The other favored squads included the UST Nuggets that still had the fearsome trio of Alex Gantiaoqui, Peter Paul Rodriguez, and Edwin del Rosario; and the Adamson Baby Falcons that was bannered by Romulo Orillosa, Rolando Cupcupin, and Teddy Naluz.

The 1984-85 season was significant on the league level for two changes. The first was the hosting of the first UAAP All-Star Game and the Ateneo contingent that competed included Tanjuatco, Reyes, Gayoso, Nieto, Canlas, and Araneta (ironically, the freshman class of the Ateneo Blue Eagles for 1985-86 that included La Salle Greenie Llen Mumar).

The Eaglets, ran four staple plays that year. One was called “corner” for shooters like Tanjuatco and Canlas -- to name a few -- to knock down that long tom. The second play was an “alley-oop” for players like Sanchez, Oledan, and Canlas who liked to swoop in for acrobatic lay-ups. The third was the high-low play for the team’s bigs. The last was called “habol” and that meant five passes to find the open man before taking a shot.

The RMC was one of two venues for the UAAP basketball games back then.  The other was the venerable Loyola Center as Blue Eagle Gym was known at that time.

Even then, the hallmark of the Ateneo Juniors squad was its zone press that they used to smother foes en route to a perfect 11-0 record heading into the final game of the season against Adamson. This was a good two years away from the addition of De La Salle College into the UAAP ranks and the format then was the top two teams slugged it out in a winner-take-all finals. Any team that swept the elimination double round robin was immediately declared the champion. And the ’84-’85 team had the opportunity to accomplish the school’s fifth UAAP Juniors title with its second ever sweep**.

But the Falcons, who were in second place with one loss (to Ateneo), had other ideas. In their first round match-up with the defending champions, the game was close and the Ateneans only put the game away in the final minutes. Despite that, Adamson was confident they could prevent that sweep in order to forge a championship series.

The twelfth game of the year was held at the Araneta Coliseum and the one other significant change in the UAAP that year was the match was to be televised over Channel 4. It was a breakthrough for high school basketball then because it was only the PBA that got airtime. But back in the day, it was pretty obvious that the reason the game was televised because Blue Eaglet Julius Cendaña’s father, Greg, was the Minister of Information under then President Ferdinand Marcos.

The championship saw the entire fourth year Ateneo class in attendance at the Big Dome. But even if the 400-strong blue and white contingent filled the venue with their cheers of Fabilioh and Halikinu, the Baby Falcons remained undaunted in desire to unseat the champs.

With time down to its final minute of play, Tanjuatco received a pass from the right side and he buried a jumpshot with Cupcupin all over him. On Adamson’s next offensive, an Atenean was whistled for a foul that sent Cupcupin to the stripe. With the Ateneo high seniors jeering, the Baby Falcon missed both free throws. Ateneo rebounded the ball for a one-point win and the successful title defense. Point guard Jun Reyes was declared the MVP while Jay Gayoso was named the Most Promising Player of the Tournament.

As the Eaglets accepted the trophy, for the second year in a row, a chant broke out from the upper box section of the Araneta Coliseum: “No classes. No classes.”***

That same day, because of the victory, the Blue Eaglets were invited to represent the Philippines in the first ever Southeast Asian Boys Tournament (that never pushed through).

There was no bonfire then because the senior team (Chot Reyes, Perry Martinez, Mike Facundo, and Rey Rances) didn’t make headway against the UST Glowing Goldies of Pido Jarencio and Bennet Palad, and the UE Warriors of Allan Caidic and Jerry Codinera. The tempered but no less joyous celebration was instead held at the Tanjuatco residence in Alta Vista.

The ’84-’85 Eaglets competed in three more tournaments after that. The tournament after the UAAP was the Metro Manila Basketball League where the three-point shot was introduced****. The first game of the Juniors competition was between the Ateneo High School and La Salle Greenhills where Tanjuatco and future teammate Mumar traded one trey after another. The Blue Eaglets beat the Greenies and went into the championship round against the similarly undefeated San Beda Red Cubs. The Eaglets were leading by one point and had ball possession when Bedan Roberto Sison stole the inbounds pass and made two free throws to beat Ateneo by one.

The Blue Eaglets once more faced the Red Cubs (Benjie Paras, Jiggs Mendoza, Dong Vergeire, and Sison) in the National Juniors Tournament. And without Tanjuatco and Cendaña who were not included in the lineup due to academics, Ateneo lost.

Team Ateneo closed out the year with another championship when they beat Southwestern University in the National UAAP.

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* The other players who graduated from that team included Bobby Liamzon, Bibo Pefianco, Louie Bonoan, Pancho Tizon, Mike Agleron, and Cris Ramos. They prevented a UST sweep and beat the Nuggets twice in the championship round more to win the title.

** The first Blue Eaglets team to sweep the UAAP Juniors competition was the team of Chot Reyes and the duo of Arnel Mañosca and Pio Morabe who later transferred to La Salle for college. One other member of that team was Butch Antonio who later became Commissioner of the Metropolitan Basketball Association and is currently the Team Manager of the Smart Gilas Pilipinas National Team.

*** When the senior class was chanting “no classes”, the high school principal at that time, Fr. Luis Candelaria S.J. waved his hand to dismiss the plea. The following Monday during the traditional General Assembly at the covered courts, the seniors staged a sit down strike unless the high school admin declared the suspension of classes because of the championship. After some discussion, the entire high school was given the Friday of that week off.

**** After the MMBL tournament, the three-point shot was introduced the following season in the UAAP.

Notes:

In the FEU Baby Tamaraws team that the Blue Eaglets played against, one of the players they went up against was an Ateneo Grade School batchmate Teddy Corpus.

After graduation from high school, Bing Arroyo played for the UP Maroons.

Jay Gayoso moved to La Salle but returned to Loyola Heights in 1986 to serve out his residency before suiting up for the Blue Eagles en route to the 1987 and 88 title squads.

After college, several players played in the PABL: Canlas (A&W, Philips Sardines), Reyes (Magnolia and Philips Sardines), Araneta (Philips Sardines) Mendoza (Triple V), Arroyo (Bicol Express), and Gayoso (Philips Sardines).

Three members of the ’84-’85 team played in the PBA: Reyes (Pepsi, Sta. Lucia, and Alaska), Gayoso (Ginebra and Tanduay), and Araneta (Alaska).

Happy Anniversary to my Ateneo High School Batch!!! See ya at the Homecoming.