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Meet Ateneo’s Team Glory Be (Part 1)

Ateneo's Hail Mary Squad (Team A) is the goal for the players on Team Glory Be (Team B). We've seen products from Team Glory Be move up and make their mark in the UAAP like Nonoy Baclao, Emman Monfort and Jumbo Escueta, as well as a bunch of players from this year's roster.

Here's the first of a two-part article on getting to know the boys paying their dues to rise up the ranks and make it onto the Hail Mary Squad.

Name: Joma Adornado

Course: 4th year, BS Communication and Technology Management

6'1, shooting guard

The last name should be familiar to you if you're a PBA fan. Joma is PBA legend Bogs Adornado's son. With a Dad like that, you would think that Joma is pressured to fill his father's shoes but that isn't the case. "I see other Dads that would get mad at the kids who didn't play well, my Dad isn't like that. He doesn't force me to play but he teaches me what he can."

Joma recalls back when he was five years old that him and his Dad would use potted plants as cones in their garage to do some drills.

"He watches my games, then after the game he tells me what I need to improve on."

Apart from basketball, Joma is very involved with his orgs as creative director — photoshop, video editing — he does all that. He even told me his secret on vectoring (which I already knew, haha) but if you do come across some MEcO or ACTM promos, he might just be the one who made them!

Coach Sandy Arespacochaga on Joma: "He's a shooter, has led Team B in scoring for a lot of games, he's young for his batch but he's improved a lot already in terms of strength and he's asserted leadership."

Name: Bon Jovi Cipriano

Course: 5th year, AB Interdisciplinary Studies

5'9, guard

It's not unusual for someone from Team A to be called to Team B. After all, it happened to Emman Monfort. BJ is back to provide for Team B but he's not depressed about it. He actually enjoys the fact that his time is more flexible. He's been my classmate tons of times and he's definitely one of the most easy going guys you will ever meet.

"I like to sleep, I love to sleep. I play sports, basketball, billiards. Gusto ko talaga chill lang eh. Ayoko yung hinahassle yung sarili ko" — which is probably why it was hard to schedule the interview with him. Haha!

Already on his 5th year, BJ plans to go to pilot school after he graduates. "Ayoko kasi ng office work, I love to travel din. Atsaka mas okay na makapunta ako ng kahit saan."

Coach Sandy on BJ: "He's a shooter, great attitude, gets along with everybody and he's improve a lot in the past few years".

Name: Paul Siarot

Course: 4th year, AB Interdisciplinary Studies

6'5, power forward/center

The first time I met Paul, he was one of the two incredibly tall guys in my block during ORSEM (the other incredibly tall guy was JP Erram). We were the weird block because unlike other blocks, we were all transferees and apart from our INTAC class in freshman year, we were never together because we all came from different courses. Which was probably why Paul went "Grabe ka, nakalimutan mo na" when I confessed that I had forgotten we were blockmates! I also forgot that we were thesis classmates. Oops.

Paul and Poy were spotted at the Unigames as the twin towers. It was the first year Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro had done so well in various leagues, and winning against Ateneo motivated the blue and white to get both of them to Loyola Heights. Paul has filled the position of big man in Team B and who knows, with Greg Slaughter in his final year in the UAAP, Paul and Poy might just reunite the twin towers and give other UAAP universities a hard time on the court.

Coach Sandy on Paul: "Great rebounder, good defender, intense player and his teammates love him".

(To be continued)

Editor's note: The blogger's views do not represent Yahoo! Southeast Asia's position on the topic or issue being discussed in this post.

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