Xavier Golden Stallions coach, Dr. John Sy talks about a different perspective in approach to hoops

Xavier Golden Stallions coach, Dr. John Sy talks about a different perspective in approach to hoops

John Sy puts on two hats – he’s a doctor and a basketball coach. He’s performed each role admirably for decades now – especially the latter of which he is most passionate about.

“I have been involved with Xavier School for decades now and the rewarding thing about coaching is you get to see the boys grow up to be men; productive people for the country if I can be clear about that.”

Doctor John is currently coaching the 13-Under and 12-Under teams of Xavier. He also oversees the practices of those born in 2006 and 2007. “Basically, the high school program of Xavier,” he puts with a smile.

“For tournament like Breakdown Basketball, I like this because it gives more opportunities to our players. Here it is by age group. In other leagues, you are forced to get the top six players of one age and put them in another team with the top five of another age group. Here, because it is by age, you can develop the entire team. Furthermore, the competition is very good. Hence, a good learning process.”

Unlike other squads that use tournaments like Breakdown Basketball to prepare for a bigger tourney, Doctor, or Coach John says that in Xavier, there has been a change in mindset.

“Before it held true that we used some tournaments in preparation for the Tiong Lian League. Since nawala na ang Tiong Lian, we treat every tournament that we participate in with a different mindset – and that is to perform well. We prepare for the challenge. We play hard. That way, there is no drop off in concentration. We try to be competitive in every competition. As long as we learn from it we’re fine. Whether you win or lose, as long as you can say you gave it your best then we’re fine. Because we’re in the business or mission of developing student-athletes for a better nation. There is a lot to learn in sports.”

For the Golden Stallions’ 17-Under or Juniors team, Sy points to Martin Sadhwani, Nathan Chan, Jedric Lim, Kyle Ong as some of the players who will lead the team. Actually we want the entire team.

“And for the ’07 team, we have several players Gavit Go, Joaquin Escudero -- the son of Senator Chiz Escudero – who we are looking at to help our team.”

“We don’t really like to say we have star players although we know that some tend to shine more, we try to instill a ‘team mentality.’ That way everyone can share in its rewards and learnings.”