How my basketball-deficient family outsources love for the game
My 12-year-old son is afflicted with tall genes and the anticipation of good basketball-playing skills that are said to go with it
My grandfather was a National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball star. He was called El Gallo and was captain ball of the gold-winning Philippine Airlines in the Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association.
My sister played center at De La Salle Zobel (DLSZ)’s girls’ basketball team. Our dad was her team manager, and the whole family would watch their team demolish opponents.
Me? I don’t play ball. My siblings snicker at my chest pass, and I suck at sports with props. I’m more comfortable doing martial arts.
My husband Jason is over 6 feet tall and doesn’t play basketball. He played varsity volleyball in high school and is pretty athletic, but it has hounded him since childhood how he is expected to be good at basketball because of his height.
From this motley background, my 12-year-old son Jack ended up trying all kinds of sports. It didn’t help that he’s been afflicted with tall genes and the anticipation of good basketball-playing skills that are said to go with it.
He’s been through two basketball camps since first grade. Both were focused on drills and were run like factories. Aside from the fees, being the mom who would drive him to these classes thrice a week at 7-9 a.m. or 2-4 p.m. was a commitment and an exercise in patience.
As a parent, I feel my duty is to offer opportunities as best as I can and see what takes. Basketball hasn’t seemed to click, but Jack is a social creature and thrives on playing with his friends. He has been ostracized from joining pickup games on the street because he doesn’t know how to play.
So when I saw an ad for Everyday Champions, a basketball camp in Alabang, we signed up. It fits my son’s after-school schedule. And because it’s only weekly, he won’t be overscheduled and will still be able to have free time.
Life skills
From Day 1, I saw how Everyday Champions differed from other camps Jack has tried. On their free trial day, the coaches did assessment drills to see where the kids were skillwise. As they would line up to take their turns doing whatever was asked, the kids would be corrected immediately regarding proper form. Those who don’t get it straight away are taken aside for a quick one-onone till the move is satisfactory. The rest get to continue so there isn’t slack time.
“Everyday Champions focuses on guard skills, specifically shooting and dribbling, overall team play, and the basics of playing organized team basketball. We use basketball as a platform to teach and mentor kids—that’s how the name Everyday Champions came about,” explained coach Hyram Bagatsing.
“We want to instill values such as hard work, discipline, teamwork, and different life skills that they can use not just on the court but also off the court and in their everyday lives, to help them succeed and accomplish their goals in whatever they do.”
Everyday Champions was born at the beginning of the pandemic. “We tried to do classes virtually but I wasn’t too happy with the model and it was challenging to teach and make corrections,” admitted Bagatsing. “I put things on hold and waited till things normalized and opened up. I got the opportunity to start camp at Rockwell Club in May 2022.”
Bagatsing played college basketball at De La Salle University (DLSU) and was team captain in his final year. After that, he won championships in amateur leagues like Philippine Basketball League and Philippine Basketball Association Development League (PBA D-League). He also played professional basketball for five years in the PBA and has trained at popular basketball camps in Indiana and Chicago.
Mentoring kids
After his playing career, Bagatsing took a break to be involved in their family business and went back to school to take his master’s in entrepreneurship.
“Being in the corporate world for a few years really made me miss the sport and I still wanted it to be part of my life somehow. I wanted to be able to pass on all that I learned and mentor kids. From there I decided to coach and teach,” said Bagatsing.
His partner, coach David Webb, is helping out parttime as he still has some opportunities to play basketball professionally. Webb played high school basketball at DLSZ where he won the school’s first-ever championship. He played college basketball at DLSU, some amateur stunts in the PBA D-League, and eventually in the PBA.
I appreciated the small class size as the kids’ fundamental skills would get proper attention from pro players, no less. “Ideally, we’re trying to aim for a 5:1 ratio but for now since we’re starting out, it’s more of a limited number of players we want to accommodate. We look at 10-15 kids per camp so that it comes out as a full number for the basketball team with hopefully two to three coaches per team,” said Bagatsing.
Everyday Champions plans to have their camps year-round and be able to offer two sessions a week. They currently operate at Rockwell Club, Makati, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-6 p.m., and at Hampton Court, Hillsborough Village, Alabang, Mondays, 4-5:30 p.m. They hope to add one more camp this year at another location. They recently held a camp in Palawan.
Bagatsing’s style is stern but fair. There is little attempt to gamify the drills. We’re not a family that has a basketball team we support, and we don’t follow games on TV. But Jack returns to the sessions because he is finally learning skills and rules he can immediately apply. It’s the closest thing to having a dad share his love for the game.
Call Everyday Champions at tel. 0966-5011833; email everydaychampion32@gmail.com; follow everydaychampionsph on Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok.