Manila kids join NBA Jr nat’l camp

Nineteen young players – 16 from Metro Manila and one each from Bulacan, Rizal and Laguna – emerged the best of the Manila Regional Selection Camp of the Jr. NBA Philippines 2013 held at the Aquinas Gym in San Juan on April 14.

The Manila camp is the last tryout for this year’s Jr. NBA Program which culminates with the national training camp where the top 50 players from the regional selection camps in the various regions and the Alaska Power Camp will be trained.

Kids 10- 14 years old from Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bacolod, Iligan and Palawan joined the Manila tryouts.

The top 40 players with the best scores on the vital tests, skills stations and fitness challenges returned on Day 2. The top 19 from the pool of 40 will move on to the national training camp.

The 19 kids are Rodney Manuel and Nikolai Azurin from San Juan, Tyler Tio and Gian Mamuyac (Mandaluyong), Miguel Fortuna, Derrick Caalaman and Kenneth Maneze (Parañaque), Vince Ferrer, Marco Sario and Luigi Velasco (Makati), Bryeo Bunyi and Benedict Cruz (Manila), Paolo Rivero (Pasig), Christian Anterola (Las Piñas), Kyle Ong (Quezon City), Juan Paolo Garcia (Valenzuela), Bryan Lina (Antipolo), Maverick Barles (Bulacan) and Samuel Abuhijleh (Laguna).

Manila has 19 finalists because only six players were chosen from Dagupan and five from Lucena City, while Davao yielded 10 players and the Alaska Power Camp another 10.