of Balagtas, Bulacan, has had its fair share of remarkable stories, the most famous of which comes from its legendary citizen, a literary genius, Francisco “Balagtas” Baltazar. Credited for his role in the Spanish Revolution through his debates & writings, the father of the Tagalog dialect, has a cast a tall shadow to its approximately 64,000 residents of today. The modern Balagtas has tried to grow & expand in commercialism, & like most municipalities in the Philippines, they have somewhat replaced their heroic ideals & rich tradition in pursuit of pop culture & modern conveniences.
However, there ar
e still some that still keep to heart the lessons of the past, that persistence with a vision founded on principles of fidelity, courage, effort, & idealism can bring about a revolution worth striving for. STI College Balagtas, a microcosm of the town, is such a place. The founders has paved a road formed from their honest & humble intentions, on which, its administrators & staff struggles to maintain its purity but loyally follow in their attempt to mold the new students of today with their 
rudiments of education & sense of tradition. The founders proudly provide their students the opportunity to compete in annual competitions, to expose them, to simulate to the youth in their care how the world could be outside of the nurturing walls of their institution.
It was 6 long years ago that one of their side projects started alongside their main mission of growing their small school to an institution that mirrors the value of this heroic town. The project had in its heart the goal of transforming their basketball team from one that was casual, training only a couple of months in year, just in time for a competition, to one that was structured & character forming. Winning was also an established goal as the team went for years without tasting a win. Let us be clear, although winning was a goal, the method behind the winning counted more than the victory itself.
For this, the founders went to an enigmatic coach, one who you could almost be faulted for being too idealistic, stubborn in his ways, & nauseously demanding. The time frame for this transformation was set for immediate or for the near future. This was the beginning for STI Balagtas Thunders Basketball Team. The rosters of then were in for a rough ride, but unknowingly to the coach, he was in for a rougher ride. The change happened, but it waited past immediate, & certainly moved beyond the near future.
They say the road to change is an oxymoron of an undertaking, & it usually divides into three forks: change for the better, change for the worst, or no change. It can be that a change for the better can bring about an unexpected companion that nullifies the sought after result - good with bad is really, no change, & no a win scenario, while no change can be tempting since it does not worsen the current state. Or, a change for the worst can eventually bring about an unforeseen blessing. Even more perplexing, the road to change often disorients its passengers, the process of change prevents us from ever seeing the entire picture, either it befuddles people into thinking we have changed for the better or that it leaves us in despair, that change is an impossibility, or it confuses us in discerning which fork one is in. It is just plain weary treading in the road of change.
And so, the coach looked to travel on the road to change, head on, in his proud & steadfast way, on a route quickest in his view, as was customary for him. He began with what he believed in, that a team founded on values & principles must be armed with people of character. He went away from the convention, of building through talent recruitment but with character recruitment, yet he expected result. He believed that it is not the size of the man in the fight, but the size of fight in the man. He tried to train his team with basketball skills, & spent a considerable amount of time, preaching values. Hoping, against what many said as a waste of time, that the players would perform well on & off the court with these teachings.
More than half of the pioneering players were cut from the team, mostly for the reasons that they were unwilling to sacrifice for the common good of the team, or they felt that it was not worth training this hard. They were replaced with people who were not necessarily better players, just players who were a little more hard working, more conscious of their peers, a willing ear, & a heart that wouldn’t quit. The first team was essentially a rag tag team of characters. They had a lot to learn, but was more than willing to learn it all, even if they had to train twice a day under the unrelenting sun, sweltering heat, or the occasional summer rain. The conditions were unforgiving at times, but so they carried on the road of change.
The road of change is different to each undertaker; it is devilishly fickle often intersecting with other roads before hitting that fork one thinks as the final destination. For this coach, he recalls crossing the road of agony, for each defeat in the district or provincial competitions or student dropout or setback, brought about this pain, which ultimately detoured to the road of humility then to the road of hope, then back again to the road of change, often somewhat disoriented & just wanting the process to end. Although defeated most of the time, he tried to remain true to his formula, for it was the only thing he knew & believed in.
The district & provincial championships are fraught with potholes. One cannot really plan for this competition, since each year seems to bring new rules or scenarios that imagination would be proud of. Games are not the standard, courts may not be official, weather plays a factor, the bracketing, the wait from one game to another, the number of games played in a day, & the list can rumble on & on. The past champions of this competition were usually teams that had the best players, & were not necessarily teams that played together for an entire season. They simply had too much talent for the competition to handle. STI Balagtas Thunders needed lady luck to be kind to them to see their mission through. For 5 years, lady luck didn’t quite smile on the Thunders, but looking back she was with them in the background throughout. They fought valiantly for 5 years, but each time they were bettered by these super teams, or more often by the physical torture of the system of play.
It was his captains, that were set at the beginning of each season, that helped him along the road, & they became a beckon in leading the team to the road of change. These captains each brought about a contribution, an invisible infrastructure to many, invisible sometimes to the coach as well. The captains laid about a culture to each succeeding group of players, setting up a line to the finals of the provincial championships after 6 years of laying the ground works. If the captains built the infrastructure, the rest of the team were the operators of the Thunders’ change. Batch by batch of operators kept at driving for the goal of wining a championship at the provincials, & batch after batch mostly came short.
And so, the times cycled, and with each new season, the players helped their coach, their coach helped his players, & the players who have graduated would return for some surprise practices & helped their old team. This went on for years & it toughened up each succeeding batch. Even the system used by the coach cycled back to year 1, having tried different methods of play, he went back to the roots and mixed in the lessons he learned from 5 years of coming up short with his team.
Until the year 2011, where it seemed everything was in perfect harmony from October 12 to October 14, when the team defeated all its opponents, & claimed its first provincial championship. They were able to defeat their archrival finally after bowing to them in both matches in the 2010 provincials. They faced their sister school in the finals, who will also be a force to be reckoned with in the future. They won the finals on the back of effort & willingness to share the ball, but the coach knows there is more to work on & refine, for the competition will be back next year, even more potent, & ready to reclaim the title that usually belongs to them.
Absent from or at the back of the minds of this batch are the sacrifices & agony of the previous. It would be smart for them to not forget & heed to the always lingering grasp of over zealousness, the usual unwanted companion upon reaching the top. They should look back in celebration & remember all that came with it, for it will bring humility & motivate themselves to keep moving forward along this road of change.
As mentioned, the road of change is bewildering, but for this batch of players in 2011, they may feel that the road of change, one that they may feel is clearly on the fork for the better, is one they need to be alert. Change is a process, which can reverse itself without the proper attention. Though they say winning the first is the sweetest, & the coach knows his players of today graciously celebrate with the previous batches, he is aware that it is the journey to the road of change, the never ending road of change, that brings about true happiness & contentment. Winning is only the tail end of the journey. Mount up. It is only time that will know how this story will end.
Author: Gian Carlo Tan
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