Never say Die: The fourth quarter angst
By Dannah Cuizon
Many people looked forward to 2017 because 2016 brought such bad luck to virtually everyone in the world. But not so for the Enderun Colleges’ Men’s Basketball Team (MBT).
“We, Titans, ended 2016 with a bang,” declared Javen Bariguez Gatula, during an interview with INK. Javen, Gat to his friends, is Enderun Colleges’ MBT Captain. “We defeated the Diliman Blue Dragons and gained our first championship.”
Gat is a 21-year old student-athlete of Enderun Colleges. He juggles his captainship with studying for a college degree. Gat is taking up Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management, major in Hotel Administration.
How do you lead your team through tough games?
When you feel like quitting, remember why you started.
What were the challenges in winning the championship game against Diliman?
One of the challenges that we encountered was to be consistent in everything. Because winning requires constant hard work and dedication from every member of the team in our practice. Day in and day out we need to be disciplined with ourselves. For example, instead of having nights out, we just rest and let our bodies recover. We also monitor what we eat and drink everyday.
How do you play your personal best and show your prowess, but still maintain teamwork?
For us, we focus more on our individual roles in the team. And we try to support the strong player, the team guy who is a having a ‘good game.’ We can all feel it, and we keep on feeding the ball to him. Our kind of teamwork is all about collective effort from each other, whether our guys are driving into the key or just warming the bench. We’re one team.
How important is leadership to you?
Leadership is how you deal with your team. As captain, I need to be a role model to them. You have to motivate them if they are struggling and make them realize that we should all give our utmost to make our team better and stronger.
So sports is your career then? Or is it your IHM degree?
I focus on both. Basketball can make you famous but only for a short span of time. As you get older, you can’t play like you used to. Then you gotta depend on your diploma and make sure you have a steady job. And so, even as an athlete, studies are important.
Is a full stadium of cheering Enderun fans important?”
It is extremely important. We need our classmates in order to boost our confidence on the court and against any opposition. Fan support is especially important in the last crucial fourth quarter, because there, Enderun cheering gives us that ‘never say die’ attitude!
