Here’s the second installment of our 10 Wishes for Philippine Sports in Year 2012.

6. Move over Kiefer and Bobby Ray, here comes Jeron

After Kiefer Ravena (Ateneo de Manila University) and Bobby Ray Parks (National University), there’s the next blue-chip, can’t-miss prospect for local college ball in Jeron Teng, a teammate of the two 2011 UAAP rookie sensations in several Youth international stints in the past.

Currently a high school senior for Xavier School, the bull-strong, multi-dimensional Teng reportedly will suit up for De La Salle University in the UAAP come July when former Ambassador Danding Cojuangco returns as the Green Archers patron.

Jeron’s dad, Alvin (Robocop) Teng, had played for Cojuangco’s San Miguel Beer team in the professional Philippine Basketball Association during his heyday. Elder brother Jeric, the 2009 UAAP Rookie of the Year, is a three-year vet with the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers.

Jeron, who turns only 18 in March, has had a number of international experience, having donned the Philippine colors for the Youth Under-16 and Under-18 teams and the country’s 3-on-3 squad to the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore (where Parks was a teammate).

A year ago on January 5, Jeron drilled in an eye-popping 104 points in Xavier School’s 164-74 shellacking of Grace Christian College in a Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association (MMTLBA) game. It was the greatest scoring game by a high school player in Philippine basketball history.

During the 2010-11 Tiong Lian season, Teng averaged 39.5 points over 16 games as the Golden Stallions went 15-1 in securing a league record-setting fourth straight Juniors title. In winning his third championship in a row, he also picked up his second consecutive Tiong Lian MVP award.

Jeron, who owns a 33-1 record (including victories in his first 31 assignments) and a 27.6-point career average in three seasons with the XS Juniors in the Tiong Lian competitions, spearheads Xavier School’s “Strive for Five” campaign in the 2012 TL tournament, which will get underway on Saturday noon, January 14, at the Uno Gym.

The City of San Juan-based school opens defense of its Juniors crown against Chiang Kai Shek College in a battle between the two winningest schools in Tiong Lian annals. CKSC has the most Juniors championships ever at 14 while Xavier School is second with 10.

Other inaugural encounters in the seven-team, single round-robin tournament will feature host Grace Christian College vs. Uno High School and Hope Christian High School vs. St. Stephen’s High School. St. Jude Catholic School, which is now coached by former De La Salle player Cholo Villanueva (a member of the Green Archers’ 2007 UAAP title unit), drew a bye on opening day.

5. No More Professionals for Gilas Pilipinas

With due respect to the professional players who have been willing to play for flag and country in the past, let’s do away with the “awkward” scheme that mixes outstanding college or post-graduate players with three or four PBA vets in the composition of national basketball teams.

I honestly believe the Gilas Pilipinas program, which began in 2009, is sound and effective. Envisioned solely to develop the young turks from the college ranks for future international battles, it relies heavily on a team-ball, share-the-wealth concept where everybody has a role to play, a system which is diametrically opposed to the superstar, I-am-first mentality that is prevalent in the professional league.

That’s why I was shocked when several pros were called upon at the 11th hour to replace deserving post-college players who had diligently trained with the Gilas Pilipinas team (Dylan Ababou was among them) on the national squad to the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

In the 2011 Wuhan FIBA Asia tournament, four pros again bolstered the Gilas Pilipinas team that placed fourth overall.

Let’s hope that the hodgepodge way of constructing our national basketball team is now a thing of the past. That way, 39-year-old Asi Taulava may be allowed to retire from international competitions by the time the next FIBA Asia competitions are held in 2013.

4. World Title Streak of Filipino Pro Boxers Continues

Professional boxing enjoyed tremendous success in the year past with four legitimate world champions, including two Filipino-Americans, to boast.

Hopefully, Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire Jr., Brian Viloria and Donnie (Ahas) Nietes successfully retain their respective crowns this year and there are some more world-caliber Filipino boxers on the horizon.

Last year, our Pambansang Kamao, Sarangani Congressman Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs), picked up a pair of victories although one of them was not convincing enough for some boxing-chronicling publications to keep him atop the list of the globe’s top pound-for-pound boxers.

In May, Pacquiao demolished American (Sugar) Shane Mosley to a pulp with a masterful unanimous decision at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Six months later, also at the MGM GGA, he barely outpointed the tireless but aging Mexican gladiator Juan Manuel Marquez with a debatable majority-decision win in their third face-off that provoked a lot of controversies. While Pacquiao extended his winning streak to 15 straight fights and retained his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight crown for a third time, there were a few with fertile minds who believed that the three judges scored the bout blindly for fear that a Pacquiao defeat would upset the gambling industry in Las Vegas.

Fil-Americans Viloria (30-3-0, 2 no contests, 18 KOs) and Donaire (27-1-0, 18 KOs) also shared the boxing headlines.

Viloria, the 5-4 “Hawaiian Punch” scored a brutal eighth-round technical knockout victory in his 12-round bout against Mexican challenger but slight favorite Giovanni Segura (who had been ranked No. 9 on the Ring Magazine’s list of the world’s top pound-for-pound boxers) for a successful first defense of his World Boxing Organization (WBO) flyweight title last December 11 at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

Given up by most boxing analysts following a humiliating 12th-round TKO loss to Carlos Tamara on January 23, 2010 at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City, the 31-year-old Viloria, who represented the U.S. colors during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, made a stunning comeback last July 16 with a 12-round unanimous decision over Julio Cesar Miranda in Honolulu, Hawaii to capture the WBO flyweight crown and a third world title.

Nicknamed “The Filipino Flash,” Donaire stopped Mexican Fernando Montiel via a spectacular second-round TKO last February 19 in Las Vegas, Nevada to secure the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight titles and become the second Filipino and third Asian to capture world titles in three different weight divisions.

In his New York debut last October 22, the 29-year-old Donaire registered a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten two-division world champion Omar Andres Narvaez of Argentina at the Madison Square Garden to retain his WBC bantamweight crown.

On February 4, Donaire, who’s currently rated by the Ring Magazine as the No. 4 top pound-for-pound boxer in the world, will take on hard-hitting Puerto Rican Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. at the Alamodome in San Antonio (USA) for the WBO super bantamweight crown earlier relinquished by Mexican slugger Jorge Arce.

With 26 straight victories, Donaire, who was born in Bohol but is now based in Los Angeles, California, is bidding for a world title in a fourth weight division (after flyweight, super flyweight and bantamweight).

A fourth Filipino world boxing champion emerged last year when Donnie (Ahas) Nietes (29-1-3, 16 KOS) took away the World Boxing Organization (WBO) light flyweight crown from Mexican Ramon Hirales Garcia last October 8 with a 12-round unanimous verdict in Bacolod City.

May the reign of Pacquiao, Viloria, Donaire and Nietes continue in the Year of the Dragon.