A graduating senior’s point of view on the last four years of Ateneo Sports.
Sixteen years in the Ateneo has taught me to be one thing: a champion. From the exhilarating rise to the inevitable fall, the same story is told over and over while only the characters change. Out of all the stages wherein this story is told, the one of sports is my favorite.
This university has one of the most celebrated sporting histories in the country and it deserves its glory. We treat our athletes as parents treat their children. We train them hard and teach them well. We push them into battle when they are ready. We cry with them in their victories as well as their defeats. We breed champions.
A sports team winning is the school winning. The school’s name along with everything it stands for is what our athletes wear on their chests. This is why winning feels so good and losing hurts so bad. Our sports teams are extensions of our “Ateneanism” and I have taken this to heart in my four years in the Loyola Schools and my two years as a Guidon sportswriter.
When UST defeated us in the basketball finals of Season 69’, it was not just the Blue Eagles who lost. We all did. Students, teachers, and the rest of the community wallowed in a shared unspoken sadness in the days following the defeat. Heads hung low, but things returned to normal after a while. Life had to go on for the Ateneans.
The following year, the defeat in basketball hurt even more as our rival Archers won the championship. The two years after that saw the decline of the Lady Eagles, Blue Batters and the football teams, but reached new heights for the Blue Eagles, the Judokas, and the Tracksters. There have also been significant achievements and milestones for softball, swimming, rowing, golf, and cheerdance among others. Two bonfires later, and the alumni felt like it was 1989 again.
This is the Atenean story of champions. It does not end in the fall, but only gets better in the resurgence. As the famous Japanese proverb says, “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” That is the Ateneo way.
Our athletes stand together and celebrate each other’s victories, and we stand right behind them. More than basketball, we should continually seek to be champions in so many other sports. There should no longer be any favoritism, no longer any overshadowing.
As a Guidon sportswriter, I have learned to watch sports teams lose game after game. What started as a job for me became something more. I welcomed the challenge to write about the essence of a champion emanating from those losing teams, like waiting for a phoenix to rise from the ashes.
In the Ateneo, we are indebted to be raised in a culture of champions. Excellence is the standard. Everyone is challenged to be a winner. We are disciplined to persevere and pursue our dreams. I have learned to be a champion not just in sports but in everything I do. I have seen my professors and my colleagues excel in challenges they face inside and outside of the university, above and beyond academics and sports. That is the Ateneo way.
I recall one of my earliest and fondest sports memories to be when I watched Enrico Villanueva stand atop the scorer’s table, as he raised his arms and screamed wildly at the rowdy Araneta Coliseum crowd after they won the Season 64 basketball championship. That was my introduction to the culture of champions. I recall my conversations with Gino Tongson, former captain of the Blue Booters. In those dark days of Ateneo football, he was at the helm, and I could still see the heart of a champion in his eyes every time he spoke of getting the next game. One game at a time and one loss after another, there was no way but up, and he knew that. He just kept on fighting. Gino Tongson was a champion. That was when I learned that not all champions win games.
When I received the privilege to interview former Blue Eagles point guard Olsen Racela, he shared with me his memories of winning back-to-back titles for Ateneo, and how those rings were sweeter than the ones he won with the San Miguel Beermen. That was when I knew I was going to keep the championship spirit in my heart as I undertake future endeavors.
As an Atenean, I seek to tell the world our story of champions. This is what our country needs, and our mission of service to our fellow Filipinos should involve this spirit of championship.
We have a wonderful story to tell, one like no other school and no other community. Speak of it to your children, to your friends, and to everyone else. Tell them of the buzzer-beating shots, the off-the-field drama, and all the joys and tears. Tell them about how our sports story is what sets the Blue and White apart from the other schools. Tell them we breed champions. That is the Ateneo way.
*Benedict V. Pablo is an AB Communication graduate. He has been a sports writer for The Guidon for two years.
