Tennis Charity

A tennis charity project sponsored by the Filipino American Tennis Association of Maryland (FATAM) in collaboration with the Fil-Am Tennis Organization of Northern Virginia was scheduled to be held at the Fairland Tennis Bubble at the Fairland Regional Park at Old Gunpowder Road in Laurel Maryland on Saturday January 28, 2006.
The goal of the Benefit Tennis Charity event was to raise much needed funds for  one of our stricken kababayan tennis players who was injured in a vehicular accident recently that rendered him physically disabled and needs the support not only of our fellow pinoy tennisters but friends and kababayans as well.
His name is Edwin San Miguel who has been a mailman for the past 15 years and an active lector at the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  He lives with his wife Flora and (4) children.  
Edwin is the brother of Lina San Miguel, one of the founders of FATAM.  She was very active in FATAM’s youth development program and I used to write about these programs Lina together with Danny Francia and other active members of FATAM sponsored many of the tennis events then in the area. Other members of the Fil-Am Tennis groups were expected to attend the tennis party which will run from 7:00pm to midnight.
For more information please call Danny Francia 301-642-1521 / or email felimonfrancia@comcast.net. Or call Jeff Mascarinas 703-728-0421 / or email tennis35@gmail.com.  Jose Macaranas 202-302-1911/ or email macaranas_j@yahoo.com
Ed Tiong 703-403-5624 / or email paolomiguel1@juno.com
@9PTLA = ‘Pacman’s’ success
The current rage in Philippine sports is no doubt  the widely  acclaimed and well loved Manny “Pacman” Paquiao.   Paquiao has captured the imagination of  Filipinos all over the world and with his explosive knockout of  Erik Morales in their  great confrontation in Las Vegas this month,  his place in Philippine sports history has been cemented for all time.
@9PTLA = Gabriel “Flash” Elorde
Manny is the latest in the long line of boxing sports greats one of which was Gabriel “Flash” Elorde  This boxer from Cebu ruled his weight category for almost a decade. In his career, Elorde fought 107 bouts, winning 79, including 8 by knockout. He became world champion in the junior lightweight division when he knocked out American boxer Harold Gomes on March 16, 1960 and has held the title for seven years. In 1974, the World Boxing Council honored him as “the greatest world junior light-weight boxing champion in WBC history.” And of course we have  
@9PTLA = Pancho Villa
Another Philippine boxing great was Pancho Villa.  He  was named the greatest flyweight of the century by a group of boxing historians and scholars recently, became the first world champion from Asia when he knocked out Englishman Jimmy Wilde at New York’s Polo Grounds in June 1923. 
@9PTLA = Other World Boxing Champions
 Among the many Filipinos who have clinched an international boxing championship title at least once in their career are, Dencio Cabanella, Speedy Dado (bantamweight, 1932), Ceferino Garcia (middleweight, 1939), Small Montana, Little Dado, Dado Marino;, Roberto Cruz (1964), Rene Barrientos (lightweight), Pedro Adigue (junior lightweight, 1968), Bernabe Villacampo (flyweight, 1969), Erbito Salavarria (flyweight, 1970), Ben Villaflor (1972), Rolando Navarette (super featherweight, 1981), Dodie “Boy” Penalosa (1990s);  Luisito Espinosa (1999), Gerry Penalosa (super flyweight, 2001), Malcolm Tunacao (flyweight, 2001), Joma Gamboa (mini flyweight, 2001), Tiger Ari (super featherweight, 2001), and of course Manny Pacquiao (super bantam weight, 2002).
@9PTLA = POC, BAP Unity Forged?
Manila Dailies are reporting that basketball stakeholders in the Philippines met recently at the home of POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuango Jr. in Dasmariñas Village, Makati, to forge a united position and end a nagging problem that has beset the sport for nearly a year. Among those who attended the meeting was BAP president Joey Lina, who said “coming up with a united stand is a positive development.”
“There were no formalities. We just got to work for the sake of unity,” said Lina, who declined to say if he was there in a personal capacity or as BA? president.  “It is still a work in progress, so I would rather not discuss what took place in the meeting. But the POC has scheduled more meetings as all of the major stakeholders work for unity in basketball,” he added.
Also at the meeting were Noli Eala and Chino Trinidad, commissioners of the Philippine Basketball Association and Philippine Basketball League, respectiveiy Letran’ s Rev. Fr. Vie Calvo of the National Collegiate Athletic Association; and Ateneo’s Junjun  Capistrano of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.
It was the first time in 2006 that Lina had met face-to-face with Cojuangco after the BAP’s last-minute efforts to have basketball included in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games was rejected by the POC leadership.  
Every basketball crazy kababayans are keeping  fingers crossed that the country can begin to send teams to the next international competition.
301-839-5375 * email: fastbreakpoints@aol.com