Forgot your password? Forgot your username?
Member Area
You are here:
NEW YEAR OFFERS NEW HOPE
Written by staff   
Wednesday, 07 January 2009 04:47

After the longest holiday imaginable, it’s nice to be back and welcome the new year. I celebrated New Year's Day with my family with dinner in one of the restaurant/bars in Makati and was surprised to see a familiar face standing (yes standing) by the entrance.

That familiar face belonged to Eugene Tejada.

Eugene planed in with brother James and his Mom and Dad, before the New Year, and plans to stay for a number of weeks. After two years of therapy, Eugene now moves around in crutches and has restored some feeling on his legs. Still not 100%, he mentioned that he still can’t recognize hot or cold water when it is poured on his legs. He also is trying to work on muscles that weakened ever since the accident.
He admitted that there was initial anger in the predicament that he is in but he has now moved on and has a more positive approach to what life has in store for him.

Though many doors have closed for him (Eugene loves to cook and was hoping to get into the culinary field/ he also wanted to enter hotel management) because of the injury, he believes there is a purpose why this hand was dealt to him. And because of the trials that he has gone through, he is now flirting with the idea of becoming an inspirational speaker. He says its not really something new to him because after his injury, he would get calls (from mostly Filipino-Americans) in his home in California from parents of children who have also gone through tough challenges in life. They would ask him how he was able to deal with his personal trial and he would try to inspire the children to overcome their own.

Eugene still finds it hard to be on a basketball court but he did visit his old school for one of their games in the states. With all the bouncing of the basketball and the screeching of the sneakers, he felt it was better for him to leave before the game ended since it gave him too many memories. Those sounds just reminded him too much of how fun it is to play and of how he should be the one on the court.

But for this trip, Eugene will make his way to one of the PBA games to finally get over the hump of watching a full game. He wanted to catch a Purefoods game because they not only gave him his best year in his PBA career but they also fully supported him in his rehabilitation. But since they were eliminated before his arrival, he looks forward to watching one of the games of friends that have been supportive even when he was in the states. Rain or Shine for Alex Compton or Talk n’ Text for Harvey Carey and especially Jimmy Alapag, who even drops by his house when Jimmy is in the states.

Eugene may no longer be able to excite PBA fans on the basketball court but he will surely be able to do it once more…by simply attending one of the games and showing us all that there is hope.

HAPPY TO SEE 2008 END

With the entry of the New Year also came the exit of 3 teams in the Philippine Cup.

Red Bull – a team that doesn’t miss the playoffs often but they simply ran out of bulls.

Coke – looked like a wildcard team all throughout the eliminations and was hoping to get lucky and pull together two wins to get them through. That became impossible with injuries.

Purefoods – a shocker given its addition in manpower after coming in 2nd in last years Philippine Cup. They just seemed like they could never get the right chemistry going.

NEW YEAR, NEW TEAM?

Newspapers have reported that Coach Yeng Guiao has tendered his resignation with Red Bull but is still being wooed by the Photokina franchise to stay on. If his resignation becomes final, don’t expect him to get a lot of free time. He’ll still have the National team to handle and it won’t be much of a surprise if one of the teams swoops in and takes the National team coach before the start of the next conference.

WHO WILL START THE NEW YEAR ON THE WRONG FOOT

The first playing day of the year will pit San Miguel Beer and Air21 for the final spot in the quarterfinals. San Miguel was a team expected to do well this Philippine Cup with the acquisition of more personnel heading into the conference. Air21 finished the year very aggressive on the trading floor picking up both Cyrus Baguio and Celino Cruz. A move they hoped would bring them far in the playoffs. Expect a high-scoring battle with the losing team feeling it could have done much better this conference.
 
Related Articles
WebPhilippine Sports

Sport Page

Motor Sports

More from this Section

News

Professional Sports

Who's Online

We have 5 guests online