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EASL’s Future Champions Elite camp in Cebu. –HANDOUT PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Following its inaugural Future Champions Elite camp in Cebu, the East Asia Super League (EASL) will send 10 players to Hong Kong for the program’s Elite Championship.
League CEO Henry Kerrins said the Hong Kong tournament is the next step for the league’s grassroots initiative in Cebu, which is being carried out in partnership with the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP).
READ: EASL boosts PH grassroots efforts with Cebu program
“We have an agreement with SBP as a recognized youth development program,” he said in an exclusive interview. “This year, we have four teams coming over and one of them is a Cebu team.”
“It’s our first year as a program so we didn’t want to take kids committed to other programs. We wanted to show Cebu that if they wanted to get a chance with the best coaches then they could come play with us.”
The EASL will field the Cebu City All-Stars, a 10-man squad formed through the June tryouts.
Four members of the squad have also received scholarships from the University of San Jose-Recoletos.
Derek Wenceslao, Mc Dome De Asis, Kent Luther Labitad and Brix Tristan Hernando have virtually secured their commitments to play for the Baby Jaguars in the next CESAFI season. They are expected to begin their collegiate careers in 2029.
Aside from the Hong Kong tournament, the EASL will also select five players from the Cebu squad for a training stint with Japan B.League club Ryukyu Golden Kings.
“We really identified some really special kids… In August, we’ll take the five best kids from Cebu and send them with the Ryukyu Golden Kings for intense training. We went from 300, 40, 12 to five [players].”
“There’s so much product in Manila in the youth level as well but for us, Cebu is sort of overlooked so we chose the city and we couldn’t have been more blessed with the support of the local government.”
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The EASL Future Champions Elite Championship will be held from July 24 to 26 in Hong Kong.
