WIN or LOSE, it’s the school we choose

WHEN IT MATTERS
by TJ Rocamora (GS ‘97, HS ‘01, BS ‘05, JD ‘09)

Andy Grey of Champions League broadcasting fame had a word for it: Rapture. Such was what Ateneo fans felt when the final buzzer sounded last night on a strong-armed sweep by the Blue Eagles over the hapless Green Archers. Six bittersweet years of waiting since 2002 for that elusive crown that had caused many a heartbreak in Loyola Heights.

But for some people, primarily from the green side of things, it was literally more bitter. I woke up this morning feeling great after such a good win by Ateneo so imagine the crap that hit me when I opened up the newspaper and saw Franz Pumaren talking shit about how Ateneo had won and how it was the “worst officiating in the Finals” that he had seen. Oh common. Add to that jab was the fact that La Salle didn’t even want to come out to claim their runners-up trophy after that game. And why? It beats me. Losing isn’t necessarily bad, and let me tell you why.

I never grew up in the glory years of the Blue Eagles. Not in the 1960s and 70s with the Steve Watsons, Chito Afables, Ricky Palous and other Hall of Famers. Not in the sweet double triumph of the 1980s with Danny Francisco, Jun Reyes, Olsen Racela and their band of merry cohorts. Not even with the resurgence in the 2000s with that homegrown crew of Enrico, Wesley and Larry that brought the Blue and White squarely into the limelight again, a storybook rise to the top that brought media exposure, thousands of fangirls (and fanboys, of course) and the rabid, camp-out-24hours-before-Ticketnet-opens types that are so prevalent today.

Nope. I started watching basketball in the so-called Dark Ages of Ateneo Basketball, back in the early to mid-90s when getting to the Final Four was as far away as a J.D. degree (oh yeahboy!) and when one can stretch out on the ringside seats in the Blue Eagle Gym because no one was watching. Oh yes, that was when I, an impressionable young grade schooler who thought that Ateneo was invincible and who sang “Blue Eagle the King” everyday, got my comeuppance. When boyhood idols like Richie Ticzon, Vince Hizon, Junie Rentosa, John “Big Boy” Verayo, the Sison twins, and Sandy Arespacochaga were being absolutely creamed by Adamson (sige, may EJ Feihl at Kenneth Duremdes eh), UP, NU, UST and horror of horrors, La Salle, one could not really feel that Blue Eagle was the King.

But at least, those years, and the subsequent ones taught me something about cheering for Ateneo that maybe the young ones today have missed: losing builds grace. With every ignominous 2-7 record or double-digit bashing by La Salle, you learn to appreciate every precarious lead and every hard-fought (and I mean fought) win as bonuses. That’s why in a 1996 win over La Salle where Ateneo absolutely torched the Archers for 17 triples, I felt like it was Christmas, my birthday and winning the Lotto all in one. A win over the powerhouse La Salle team, and a twenty-plus point margin at that, was as rare as a solar eclipse. Wins are happy moments, as are expected, where a team builds confidence and gets its spirits lifted by the sweet touch of victory. But losses? Man, those are the times when you dig deep and see what you’re made of.

In the 2001 Finals, up high in the General Admission section, watching Enrico Villanueva practicing post-up moves 2 hours before tip-off, I thought that it was time for Ateneo to be rewarded after a long spell in the desert of futility. But that was not our year. Although I do not really cry, I felt all those years weigh on my shoulders as I saw the Green side celebrate their fourth straight title. But I did what every Atenean worth his salt did that time, hold my head up high, applaud the terrific La Salle team with a graduating Ren-Ren Ritualo for a great victory and consoled myself with the fact that win or lose, it’s still Ateneo I choose. The next year was different, and that was great, but that’s not the point. The sweet wasn’t as sweet without the sour.

And it’s not even exclusively against La Salle. In 2003, against FEU, Ateneo lost to the superior inside play of Arwind Santos and company. It was the last year of Ateneo icons Rich and Wes, but what the hell, it wasn’t like I was expecting a back-to-back right? In 2006, the heartbreak closest to my heart, I saw that inspired team of JC, Macky and Doug lose a 5 point lead in the last minute to lose to UST. Later that night, sitting in the traditional Mass in the Church of the Gesu, my friend Miggy echoed my feelings when he said “Pare, parati nalang ganito, bakit ganon?” I had no answer, but it was for sure a frustration that we assuaged by saying that “win or lose, it’s the school we choose.”

But the thing is, the aforementioned phrase isn’t even, as some people claim, a convenient mantra for losers (after all, “win” is one of the choices, if not the primary one). It is rather a statement of conviction by those blue to the core that Ateneo will always stand, as a team, as a community and as an ideal no matter what adversity it faces. I still feel the same about Ateneo and the beautiful game of basketball the same way even if the season ends via a two game sweep of the bitterest of our rivals (and I mean “bitter”) capping a 15-1 season OR a missed trip to the Final Four because of a 32-point thrashing at the hands of the NU Bulldogs. Ateneo coaches and players might grumble about the officiating but how can you really control refereeing (who chose NABRO by the way?).

But in the end, it will always conclude with a kudos to the victors, a submission that despite all the imperfections in the way the game was called, we will always clap for the winners as they sing their alma mater song. We will always come out to collect the runners up trophy as a testament to our own efforts and the superiority of the winning side. It is at that time when character is built, plans are redrawn and experience becomes truly an experience.

So despite Coach Pumaren’s assertion that they win “when it matters,” the glaring, incontrovertible and painful fact is that, far worse, they do not know how to lose with grace, when it should truly matter: Such a letdown given their incredible feat last year when they won it all and also this year when they put up a tremendous run behind JV Casio (my favorite La Salle player of all time) and such a shame to come from the multi-titled, future Hall of Fame lips of Franz Pumaren. Perhaps now is a good time as ever to realize that sour grapes make sour wine and that 6 or something championship rings do not necessarily breed basketball royalty with appropriate manners.

As such, last night in the midst of a raucous Blue and White celebration in the Big Dome, not only was a champion made, but a champion was un-made in the eyes of many. Good thing I belong to the former.