From UP Fight to UP Flight
For a time it looked as if the UP
Fighting Maroons had nowhere to go but down.
After the 1986 UAAP championship,
UP’s performance in the premiere collegiate league could be described as
uneventful, even dismal, save for two seasons back in 1996 and 1997 when the
team reached the Final Four.
The UP community grew indifferent.
And with a string of bottom-dwelling and sometimes winless seasons in 2007,
2010 and 2013, the community seemingly lost all interest. Recruitment suffered.
Aspirations towards a championship fizzled out. The UP Maroons continued to
battle in the UAAP, but unlike their competition, they appeared less inspired,
playing like boys against men.
Perhaps one reason was that the team
operated on a bare-minimum budget. This resulted in so-so recruitment and
short-term, season-to-season systems that failed to develop the young players
from competitors to winners. Eventually, the once-mighty Maroons of 1986 and
the late 90’s lost their winning ways, lacked the will to win and sank into a
dismal losing culture. Sad but true, but when the UP Fighting Maroons Men’s
Basketball Team was mentioned, the name became synonymous with losing.
So pathetic was the Maroons’ ability
to win that in Season 77 in 2014, the team and a community of Maroons fans
celebrated their lone win of the season against Adamson U with a bonfire at the
UP Sunken Garden. The win had snapped a 27-game losing streak and a loss-soaked
720 days. Some ridiculed UP for celebrating mediocrity with the bonfire. Had
the team really sunk so low?
In reality, it was the beginning of
a turnaround. Following that bonfire, a UP alumnus posted an article on his Facebook account that bemoaned the sorry
state of the UP basketball program, citing hungry athletes, lack of resources
including transportation, lack of electricity in their quarters and other woes.
The Facebook post became viral. The article sparked outrage, concern, then an
outpouring of support from the alumni community. That year UP won just 1 game,
but that one game meant everything. It changed the mindset of the players,
changed the perception of the UP community towards the athletes and gave birth
to the biggest and strongest grassroots support base for the team, the
nowheretogobutUP movement. That one game became the spark that started the
resurgence of the UP Fighting Maroons.
Four years after that fateful day in 2014, the
Maroons have thrived. Thanks to a strong team management and coaching staff.
Thanks to exciting recruits and alumni, fans, friends and students who rallied
to the cause. Thanks to sponsors, supporters and donors who have given in big
and little ways, the improvement in the team with regards to coaching, line-up
and performance has grown by leaps and bounds.
Through Seasons 78 through 80, the UP Fighting
Maroons have become Final Four contenders once again. The team that celebrated
on the basis of just one win is now poised to target the Final Four in Season
81 and, who knows? Maybe even the championship.
The UP Men’s Basketball Team got its biggest break in
the off-season with the support and commitment of 3M Philippines. The global
science company that never stops inventing and applies science in collaborative
ways to improve lives daily has always believed in talent and most importantly,
potential. Ariel Lacsamana, 3M Managing Director and a UP alumnus, said 3M
became intrigued with the UP team and its story. Through its long and many
struggles, the team never gave up. It kept chipping away at its challenges and
solved its problems proudly and creatively. 3M loved the grit and the
never-give-up attitude of the UP Fighting Maroons and decided it would take a
chance on the UPMBT. It formalized a long-term partnership with the team that
will support it through UAAP Season 81 and in other leagues that it would
participate in as well.
“This is not the
first time we are partnering with educational institutions or talent,” the 3M
MD said. “We do what we can to support and provide tools, resources and
knowledge. We believe that the UP Men’s Basketball Team is talent worth
investing in.”
Come September
when the UPMBT faces its most important battle which is UAAP Season 81, the
team as well as the entire UP community can’t wait to show how grateful they
are for 3M’s faith and generosity. The team will fight to show 3M their trust
in the team was all worth it. A new winning tradition is here. There’s
#nowheretogobutUP.
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