On the Semerad brothers' situation

On the Semerad brothers' situation

by rick olivares

Around the time I heard the rumor that David Semerad was leaving San Beda and I didn’t know why and where he was planning to go to. I thought that the rumor was ludicrous. But when the news finally broke out, that was when I paid attention. The first thing I did was ask Frankie Lim and David about the veracity of the report. Coach Frankie declined to comment. As did two other players who were instructed not to talk about it. I did, however, get to personally talk to David.

According to David, he said that he was not recruited. Nor did anyone talk to him about it. He left for several reasons that he declined to specify at the time we first spoke. Of course, I asked if it had to do with the lack of playing time and he said that will be addressed at the proper time. David said that he discussed the matter thoroughly with his twin brother Anthony and they both thought that it was in their best interests to transfer to Ateneo where they first tried out for when the arrived several years ago. At the time I spoke to David, he said that the decision was made only a week after the NCAA finals ended.

I asked him if he realized that there would be an uproar about this whole matter from San Beda and he said he knew that but this was something they thought about really well.

I then asked Ateneo for their side about the matter and they said that their official stand on this was, “We cannot comment about it since they had not transferred and were not under the school’s basketball program. We will wait for further developments but as of now how can we comment about it when they are not a part of the team? Even when we recruit players we never make any statements because we know that so many things can happen before such time they put on the jersey. You see that happen even with other schools. They play for them in one summer league and before you know it they enroll elsewhere. But we did not recruit them. They came to us.” That official said that there was an unwritten rule that in the event either team wanted to get one player from one another it had to be done upfront without any backroom discussions.

I found out the brothers approached team manager Paolo Trillo who was very surprised about their plans and he said that they best talk to MVP (Mr. Manuel V. Pangilinan, the principal sponsor of both school’s basketball teams). The brothers corroborated the story and they said that MVP was surprised by the move and that they had best discuss this matter with all concerned.

According to David, they were firm on their decision to leave.

I managed to speak with Coach Ato Badolato about the matter last Tuesday and he said that the moment the brothers chose to leave, the school decided to drop them from the basketball program. A school security guard came to him one morning to seek advice because the brothers tried to bring their vehicle inside the SBC campus to enroll for the second sem (their last accordingly). But Coach Ato said that the school administration took away any parking privileges and if they chose to enroll to finish their second semester then they would have to pay for it themselves since their scholarships were rescinded. And coach could not countermand any administration decree (parking inside) so he told the guard that it was best they park outside.

During my discussion about the matter with a few other coaches, they both said that if they do transfer to Ateneo, they will have to sit out two years giving them only one more playing year.