What does it take to bring the Philippines back to basketball glory? Patrick Gregorio, Executive Director of the BAP-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas says it’s all about reaching out.

Sometime in 2006, in Tokushima, Japan, the country’s basketball authorities signed an agreement that paved the way for a new and unified national basketball federation to take charge of the country’s overall basketball program, from organization and development to fielding of teams. This is the star-crossed genesis of the BAP-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.

In 2007 FIBA lifted the suspension of the Philippines, paving the way for the return of the country to international competition. No less than FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann personally attended the Basketball Unity Congress in a posh Makati hotel, attended by representatives across the broad sector of Philippine basketball, to hear Baumann announce the lifting of the suspension.

It is now 2008, and the SBP is still hard at work. In the span of just a couple of weeks, they started off the new year with quite a bang. The national youth team was introduced in historic Intramuros, with Coach Franz Pumaren announcing the names of nearly 20 young men, 12 of whom will represent the country in two youth tournaments in May and September of 2008.

Just last week the National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) for Luzon was launched at the Makati Sports Club, with 80 boys and girls ages 14-17 making up the first training groups. A Visayas NBTC and a Mindanao NBTC soon followed, with their own sets of boys and girls set to undergo intensive basketball training over the next three years.

In the meantime, the SBP is organizing the training for the players and teams who will be seeing action in the various FIBA tournaments throughout calendar year 2008, as well as undertaking a lot of reaching out, planning and organizing to ensure the return to glory of Philippine basketball.

On top of all this is a young man who cut his teeth as a tourism executive, Patrick Gregorio, or Pato to his friends and acquaintances. “It isn’t exactly a glamour job, contrary to what others may think,” he says with a slight laugh. So how did a former tourism executive wind up taking charge of the country’s basketball program? “I used to play varsity ball,” says the unassuming Gregorio. “This was an opportunity to do something for Philippine basketball.”

Personally selected by PLDT and Smart Communications Chair and President and SBP President Manuel V Pangilinan to be the man in charge, Gregorio accepted this as just the latest challenge in a life that has been all about meeting and surmounting challenges. The TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men) awardee for tourism management has always been about doing things to the best of his very substantial abilities.

“The very first thing we did was to reach out to all of the sectors that make up Philippine basketball. We really wanted to make this a unified effort,” he stated. One might even say he is pretty upbeat. “It is not an easy task and I cannot do everything by myself. That is why it is important that we always keep all lines of communication open. With the help of our friends in the media, it becomes easier to communicate.”

“We need to take this step by step. We cannot fix everything overnight,” he says. He is also looking far into the future, with things like the NBTC as the country’s own basketball academy, training kids from a very young age to become complete players and upstanding citizens. “It is important for us to look at the long term, and to establish our programs right at the grassroots level to achieve the goal of One Team, Our Dream,” he added.

When one hears Pato speak it is like hearing things for the first time, that kind of freshness of perspective. In truth he is really trying to get back to old fashioned values in the hope that those values – hard work, integrity, nationalism, good citizenship – will lend themselves to the big picture he is trying to put together. “It is always better to start with the youth, because as they grow up they grow together as players.”

“That is why we are not closing any doors, and we are constantly reaching out, so we can get greater participation from parents, schools, coaches, leagues. There might be a 6-5 or 6-6 13-year old out there just waiting to be discovered. We want to give kids like that a chance through our grassroots and long-term programs.” Judging by the number of trainees and prospects they have now, apparently the reaching out approach is starting to pay dividends.

There are obstacles and challenges of course, and some quarters who would not want to see the new basketball federation succeed, for whatever reason. But Pato remains undaunted. “At the end of the day, what we are doing is not just for basketball but for our country, and this is part of what we want to communicate to every one, to help us achieve this, not for anything else but for our country,” he says.

When I teased him that he sounds like a senator or congressman he just laughs it off. Politics is something he has dealt with in his days as a tourism executive, and like any other successful young man, has learned to deal with its vagaries. “I have a job to do, and I want to repay the trust of Mr. Pangilinan by doing the best I can.”

With Pato at the helm it seems SBP is truly in safe hands. I ask him one last question, and he pauses a bit before answering, and then answers confidently and purposefully. “Yes, all of this can happen in our lifetime.”

Joseph W Buduan is a military research consultant, former varsity athlete, writer, diehard basketball fanatic, and ardent student of the game.