Seven selected from the Baguio Jr. NBA / Jr. WNBA camp

Jump ball from one of the scrimmages in the
Baguio Regional Selection camp.

The Northern Luzon portion of the Regional Selection Camp for the Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA program concluded this past weekend at the St. Louis University Laboratory High School, with seven lucky youngsters getting the nod.

Four boys and three girls impressed the Jr. NBA / Jr. WNBA coaches (led by Rodney Santos, Junjun Alas, Christian Luanzon, Ish Tiu, Melissa Jacob, and Lhen Flormata) enough to pick them out of the almost three hundred participants and deem them "worthy of inclusion" for the National Training Camp set to take place in April at the PICC Forum. Santos though that this year's participants were in his words, "very impressive." He believes that "they will perform very well" at the NTC next month.

Jan Zyrus De Ayre (Berkley School - Baguio), Magnus Gabriel Ines (St. Louis University Laboratory High School), Christian Allen Magno (St. Albert the Great School - Dagupan), and Manuel Andrey Ober (Dagupan City National High School) represented the boys, while Christine Angela Venterez (Baguio National High School), Christine Cayabyab (Judge Jose de Venecia Sr. Memorial National High School - Dagupan), and Rose Marie de los Santos (St. Albert the Great School - Dagupan) represented the girls. Cayabyab, in fact, made it to last year's NTC, and hopes to impress again in her return.

The seven Northern Luzon kids that will participate in the National Training Camp of Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA Philippines 2015 presented by Alaska. (L-R) Magnus Gabriel Ines (Baguio), Manuel Andrey Ober (Dagupan), Christian Allen Magno (Dagupan), Jan Zyrus De Ayre (Baguio), Christine Angela Venetrez (Baguio), Kristine Cayabyab (Dagupan) and Rose Marie De Los Santos (Dagupan).

These seven kids survived the rigors of the two-day camp, with the first day devoted to skills, tests, and drills to determine the top forty players out of the 295 in the field. Those forty then were subjected to more intense drills, exercises, and scrimmages to help determine the best in their field. Of course, those picked have to exemplify the Program's core values (Sportsmanship, Teamwork, (a positive) Attitude, and Respect.

A couple more regional camps are slated to take place, with Bacolod's St. John Institute hosting one on March 21-22, followed by Davao's University of the Immaculate Conception on March 28-29. The PICC Forum will hold the final Regional Camp on April 11-12 before the NTC takes place.

Interested parties can check out www.jrnba.asia/philippines or www.facebook.com/jrnbaphilippines for more details.