The University of the Philippines Men’s Basketball Team (UPMBT) got another shot-in-the-arm after renewing its partnership with staunch backer Januarius Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiary STATS Performance Apparel for the next two UAAP seasons.
The company’s support has been instrumental in the Fighting Maroons’ rise over the last few seasons with JHI chairman and CEO JJ Atencio bankrolling the team’s overseas training in Serbia and the United States and STATS serving as official outfitter.
Atencio announced that JHI will also provide the Maroons with sports data analytics technology, which is being used by elite teams in different leagues overseas.
UP head coach Bo Perasol, team manager Atty. Agaton Uvero, nowheretogobutUP Foundation founder Renan Dalisay, JHI head of business development Paolo Cagalingan and STATS chief executive officer Edrin Panganiban were present in the MOA signing recently.
Cagalingan also spearheads JHI’s investments in sports analytics technology.
“What’s exciting for us starting this year is analytics,” said Atencio, whose company was among the first to help the Maroons in 2017 when the program began its turnaround.
“That’s one of the things we are working on with the team and that’s what we’re looking forward to – how it would help them.”
STATS is also the uniform provider of the Maroons.
Atencio said the results the past few years have only fueled his drive to further support the team, which reached the finals in 2018 and registered another Final Four appearance last season.Uvero said supporters like Atencio and STATS helped the team immensely when the Fighting Maroons struggled.