All the top Zamboangueño athletes have united to fully support the campaign of their hometown squad Zamboanga Valientes in the Asean Basketball League (ABL) Invitational 2023 starting on Tuesday, Jan. 3, at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
Magnolia’s Mark Barroca and Converge’s Mike Tolomia from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) together with Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist middleweight boxer Eumir Felix Marcial and bantamweight pug Jonas Sultan are also encouraging fellow Filipinos to support the Valientes.
“The Zamboanga Valientes are all primed up because of the encouraging messages they received from fellow top Zamboangueño athletes like Barroca, Tolomia, Marcial and Jonas,” team owner Junnie Navarro said.
“This is very meaningful to all Zamboangueños since this is the first time that they will be representing the country in the ABL,” Navarro added. “Before the Valientes flew to Singapore, Barroca appeared during the team’s last practice session last week.”
Marcial, the reigning Southeast Asian boxing king, expressed his all-out support to the Zamboanga Valientes while training for his upcoming fight early this year in Las Vegas, Nevada and Sultan would be flying to Singapore to cheer for the team.
The Zamboanga Valientes competed as off press time with Louvre Surabaya Indonesia in their first game at 6 p.m.
Zamboanga City Mayor John Dalipe also showed support to the team which is owned by Cory and Junnie Navarro and Mike Venezuela of MLV Accounting.
The game was shown live in IBT Divisoria and at the Golden Boys Gym.
American imports Antonio Hester, Will Deng, Ryan Smith and heritage player Jeremy Arthur. Also part of the team are former Gilas players JR Cawaling and Kemark Cariño, homegrown players Rudy Lingganay, Jeff Bernardo and Denver Cadiz.
Valientes will be coached by Ateneo De Zamboanga coach Bobedick delos Santos who is the mentor of successful players like San beda star Peter Alfaro and Rhayann Amsali, Padrigao, Jens Knuttel and Tolomia.
Zamboanga City has produced talented point guards like RR Garcia, Forthsky Padrigao, Barroca and Tolomia, among others, while Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz, pool masters Cheska Centeno and Roberto Gomez are also from Zamboanga City.