1st PISAA Juniors Basketball Championship slated in August

By Graham C. Lim

IT’S all systems go for the 1st Philippine Inter-School Sport Association Juniors Basketball Championship, to be staged from August 11 to September 11 this year.

Playdates are scheduled every Saturday and Sunday with a quadruple header held every time from 9 a.m. up to 3 p.m. in Lam-An Multi-Purpose Gym located at 2725 Jose Abad Santos, Tondo, Manila 1013.

PISSA Management Committee announced that this first-ever project of the organization is being held in preparation for future international participation.

PISSA president Alvin Tai Lian will grace the opening ceremony on August 11 with a simple toss ball to open the games. Tai will be assisted by PISSA secretary general Joseph A. Sy.

An invitation has also been extended to Edwin C. Fabro, the president of the Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines, with which the PISSA is affiliated. Other special guests on opening day are FESSAP Honorary Life President Angel Ngu, FESSAP

Honorary Life President David Ong, who will represent Philippine Airlines, and Yang Hua Hong, the CEO of OMNI Electrical and Lighting that is one of the major supporters of the FESSAP and PISSA.

PISSA is the national secondary federation recognized by the International School Sport Federation. Its competitions serve as the Qualifying Tournaments to the International School Sport Federation Gymnasiade to be held in Bahrain from October 23 to 31, 2024.

PISSA is a regular member of ISF, the federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee. The

PISSA is affiliated with the FESSAP for high school competitions.

The ISF organizes the Gymnasiade once every two years. Gymnasiade is also known as the World School Games, a multi-sport competition that includes Basketball, a discipline that the PISSA intends to take part in October 2024.

The 1st PJBC is Open to all studentathletes 18 years old and below. All School and Local Government Units (LGUs) teams are welcome to participate. Teams will play a single roundrobin during the elimination round. Each Team will have a maximum of 15 players with five officials allowed to sit on the bench.

All student-athletes registered with their respective schools are allowed to participate. LGUs athletes must be certified by their respective Local Government officials to be able to participate so long as they are 18 years old and below (authenticated through the submission of a birth certificate).

The officiating arm of the championship will be the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).

The champion of the 1st PJBC will represent the Philippines in Macau’s ISF Basketball Championship in October 2023.

Yet it’s also a bit of a no brainer, with the 21-year-old leading the new cavalry of Igorot warriors in The Home of Martial Arts as he has gone undefeated in his three fights including a jaw-dropping first round submission win over Matias Farinelli where he only needed 58 seconds to lock in the kneebar and force a tap at ONE Fight Night 9: Nong-O vs. Haggerty last April.

Making Sangiao more dangerous is the rejuvenated feeling he has seeing his fellow Team Lakay bet Carlos Alvarez score a second round submission victory over day Fights 25—further proof of the tides turning once