It’s been a while since I wrote anything of significance. But tonight, I just knew deep down I had to write something. Tonight, something extraordinary happened in training. Something only a Hollywood script can come up with. It was just so surreal that it was all I could think of while driving back home, while fixing myself a protein shake, and while taking a shower. I knew the myriad of thoughts had to be solidified and written down.

This year has definitely been a disappointing year for the team. It started out with great promise. We had a good run during Spirits, and it seemed like we had a great team coming into this season. But external forces worked against us. Players who were supposed to play for the team, played elsewhere. The time we invested trying to grow something great was suddenly gone, just like that. Morale just came crashing down and we started losing numbers in training and in league games.

There were many times throughout this year when I asked myself why I was still doing this. Why was I spending so much time, energy, and money to keep the team alive? I had a shitload of responsibilities at work and at home. I had a huge business to run, and here I was shedding blood, sweat, and tears on something that all my family and friends saw was a fruitless endeavour. Courageous, admirable, but pointless. It really does not make sense from an outside perspective.

But it made sense tonight. Just another scrimmage after training, another night of playing savage – real savage – exactly seven on the line, four guys and three girls, no more, no less. As it turned out, that was all we needed. I’ve played in many memorable games over the years when the odds were stacked against us, but we somehow made it through. There were far more difficult trials and circumstances we needed to overcome. And yet I’ve never been part of a game that was played so perfectly, we were at a loss for words when it was over. Just like all perfect moments, it was brief, it was intense, and it was just beautiful.

Rogers had a loaded line or three, while we were hobbling with our multiple injuries. They had speed, experience, and superior talent. We only had each other. Ipe, Yuri, Iggy, Claire, Coco, Marica, and myself. It started out just like any other night; we expected to get our asses handed to us. But tonight was not just any other night. Our spacing was outstanding. Our passes, crisp. We distributed the disc evenly. We were calm and collected. We were efficient because we did not have any subs. We knew where the disc was going. We destroyed whatever defense they threw against us. We were firing on all cylinders. We played unconscious. It was the greatest game we ever played.

Tonight was the answer to my question. Why am I still doing this? All it takes is one game, or one point, or one pass. The answer has always been in front of me all along. It’s not about being the best there was, the best there is, or the best there ever will be. It’s all about being the best we can be - for one another. It’s been a tough year filled with disappointments and frustrations. Most of us are quick to admit we had better days. But tonight one thing was absolutely clear to me. Our best days are still ahead of us. 

Playing for Super Bueno has already come full circle for me during Manila Spirits this year.  It was one hell of a ride!

Going into Spirits last year, I kinda felt lost on what my aspirations are as an Ultimate player.  I wanted to play with my friends.  I wanted to become a bigger contributor to a team.  I wanted to be a part of a team that won the big one and so on.

Being the “by default” captain of our Toda HK team last year made me realize two things: 1) I missed playing with some of my close friends and 2) I have what it takes to lead a group of Ultimate players.I knew that I had to prioritize.

Spirits 2011

Since some of my friends have merged with Bueno for Spirits last year, I felt it was the right fit for my goals even if it means swallowing my pride and accepting that I wouldn’t be enjoying as much winning as before.  And it also came with a lot of consideration due to Bueno’s history, but at the end of the day, we’re really just one community.  Everybody will love everybody anyway.

Right away, Jody and I realized that Bueno was a fair team.  Given the size of the roster, the captains had means to subsidize a portion of the registration fees of those who won’t get to play much but still trained hard and wanted to be a part of it.  Let’s call them Reserves.

I started out as a reserve, a role which I happily accepted despite my experience because I knew I could still contribute on or off the field.  Fortunately, my play during that weekend was good enough to slowly earn a spot as a D line handler.  The subsidy went away though, but I wasn’t complaining.

There were a lot of adjustments that had to be made during that tournament, resulting to a losing record.But I could see the potential in a lot of those games.  The team managed to defeat two foreign teams and keep games close with local teams.

Road to Nationals 2012

After playing for K3 during NYL 2012, we went back to a defeated Bueno, whose first Pool A experience resulted to a last place finish.  Saddest part is that it was K3 who made a come-from-behind win against Bueno to determine the bottom two spots.  Yes, we all had bad tournaments.

With Goma going on a hiatus after being the NYL coach/captain, Benny asked me to help out in coaching the team and putting a system in place.  This is the time we started training hard with the goal of qualifying for Nationals.  This was also the time when people started hanging out and bonding more due to the Monopoly Deal fad.

We lost in the finals of the DLSU Canlubang tournament in March, which gave a lot of exposure to our young players.  Then used M&M 1 to develop players further, especially our girls who made a good showing.

The team was indeed ready for Nationals, but lost the qualifying game to Bitag, which has always been a tough match-up.  Qualifying through the back door wasn’t really the plan, but the team took it anyway by shaking off fatigue to win the 4th (vs Xavier) and 5th (vs K3) games of the day.  The team was at an all-time high after that and I thought it was the biggest achievement of the year.

Nationals 2012

The team played up to its potential during Nationals, but the competition was just too good.  We ended up winless after the tournament, but still proud of the contributions of everyone.

Considering that some key players missed out on Nationals, Bueno relied mostly on its organic players to give other teams a run for their money, including an almost epic come-from-behind win after going down 3-9.

The team even had a couple of games wherein it was leading 6-3, only to lose by universal point.  It was a heartbreaking tournament, but we all had to take it with a grain of salt and be glad with the fact that the team’s short game and zone defense are getting better.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?Not exactly.

Post-Nationals “Depression”

Instead of keeping the momentum going, most of the players relaxed after Nationals.  Some due to stress, some due to having a sense of achievement already I guess.  Some new players came, some old ones left.

I felt more stressed than ever to keep training going despite not having an ideal number of people and consistency in attendance.  It was so hard running a training program and looking for progress with different people showing up every time.

It showed during Summer League as the team finished 12th out of 16, with a lot of players missing out on crucial games.  From an all-time high to rock-bottom, I felt I failed as a coach/captain.  It was time to call a team meeting.

On a rainy Tuesday night, the team set some goals until next year and everybody laid out how they wanted to achieve it as a team.  Sadly after that, attendance barely improved and I was getting concerned by the day with Spirits fast approaching.

Enter the Beer Barkada et al.

PULL 2012 opened doors for the team to have a bigger pool of players for Spirits, despite a disappointing finish from the merged team between Bueno, Brawlz, and Hasta.

Brawlz players continued to train with Bueno even after PULL and were absorbed for M&M 2, the tournament before Spirits.  The team started hanging out more after training, with the usual suspects inventing the NoM (No or More) craze. 

This is probably my unhealthiest preparation for any tournament so far, but it has also been the most enjoyable.  Going home at 4am on weekdays after drinking countless bottles, chatting a lot, and eating a lot of grub is insane!  The good part about it is that we became a more bonded team and even players who do not hangout a lot, started joining as well.

By start of M&M 2, we were able to form a strong team on paper for Pool B Open, but clearly not much chemistry yet.  The team could only manage a third place finish, but the boys were getting there.

Spirits 2012

Attendance started going up during M&M 2 all the way to Spirits.  While it wasn’t much time to prepare, the team made the most of it by also training during weekends.  The team also got a boost when Cayo and Migo decided to join, giving the team experience and a solid short game.

Going into Spirits this year, I was confident that we’ve trained hard enough and ran through what was needed to give a good showing.

We started in the bottom 11 out of the 43 teams, but winning all 3 games (Kayu, SLU, and Big Eyes of Vietnam) during pool play gave the team a chance to crossover to the Middle 16 bracket.  A good short game mixed with solid zone defense is what did it for us, despite not having the killer instinct to finish strong during games.

The crossover game against Karma was probably the most special moment of the tournament as the team considered it a high-stakes game.  It wasn’t exactly the win that made it special, but the manner of how it was achieved.  

Under pressure situations before, the team normally struggled to keep a positive environment.  But for this game, everybody was intense but supportive of one another.  Every point scored was met with “bonggels!”, every defensive effort was met with the sideline cheering one teammate’s name, every turnover was met with encouragement.

I barely even played that game as I was seeing my teammates, my friends grow right in front of me.  For the first time, our man-to-man defense was tight against strong competition.  Even when Karma was closing in on our lead, everybody didn’t stop wanting it.  Everybody loved everybody.  It was the best feeling in the world.

Our Pool D quarterfinal match-up the next day was a tough one against Gardeners.  Going down early 2-7 made us temporarily forget the formula that brought us there in the first place.  It was hard getting people to be more positive with the team trailing like that.  However, I’m still glad the team was able to recover its bearings and tighten up its defense, allowing us to threaten the game a bit until the final tally, 7-10.

Back-to-back games didn’t do us a favor as we lost the next placing game to Nagayak of CDO.  The game was neck-and-neck until soft cap was called and several errors were made on offense, ending the game at 5-8.

After two disappointing losses, the team was determined to finish strong and it did just that by racing to a 9-1 lead against Kimchi of Korea.  Even if killer instinct wasn’t applied again, everybody stepped up and used the same positive environment throughout the game.  

Staying positive under pressure is probably the biggest breakthrough for the team in this tournament.  This is what I consider “the biggest achievement of the year”.

Moving Forward

It’s now time to pass on the torch to other very capable bearers as Benny and I had to sacrifice some things to be able to coach and lead this team.

Goma and Ipe did a great job helping us out for Spirits, as did Bok.  And they will be taking a more active role going forward (with our help of course).  I hope this experience will inspire our players to keep on wanting more out of this sport and more out of this team, rising above personal limitations.

Our games have shown that we can achieve so much as a team, as long as we keep on improving together and keep on having confidence in each other.

The fire has been lit again, guys.  Let’s keep it burning this time.

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” 
― Winston Churchill

February, 2009. The park was poorly lit. The space was inadequate. Attendance was not even enough to form one line. It did not matter. Water bottles were used in place of cones. Drills were run regardless. Scrimmage was in the form of a hotbox. On this night, a small group of friends decided to do something together without any promise of succeeding. It was a decision to make something out of nothing. 

Fast forward to 2012. It has been almost 4 years since that fateful night, and I constantly look back at how far we have come. We were bottom-feeders not too long ago. We played games with just a line and a half with 1-2 girls on the roster. I still cannot believe how we managed to bumble our way from scraping for scraps in Pool C to going toe-to-toe with Pool A juggernauts. It's like a feel-good script from a Hollywood sports flick. 

It is too easy to overlook how far up the river you've gone when it all looks the same from inside the boat. You'd have to stand by the shore to realize the boat is no longer visible in the horizon. 

20 years from now, I am fairly certain I would still be thinking about the absurdity and the audacity of the things we have done and how we managed to actually pull it off. 20 years from now, I would have attended my teammates' weddings and their children's baptisms. 20 years from now, we would laugh about everything and drink into the wee hours of the night, reminiscing the glory days. 

It's hard to fathom what we did 4 years ago. But it's not so hard to imagine the conversations we'll be having 20 years from now. 

“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” - Derek Jeter


It’s been nearly four months since I’ve been a part of Super Bueno. It’s been four months since I’ve left Xavier Ultimate. It’s also been 4 months into my college life, and damn, time really didn’t feel like it was there. If 24 hours can make a difference in a person’s life, what more can 4 months have done to me?

Prior to Nationals 2012, I was  invited by Benny to train with the team, and maybe even join it. As much as the offer sounded pretty worth it, I wasn’t able to train with Bueno at the time yet, due to me being away for vacation with my family, enlistment and enrollment stuff to do for school, and trying my best to still train with Xavier Ultimate.

It was about a week before Summer League wherein I finally decided to join Super Bueno. Benny even told me (I remember this clearly) that I’d learn a lot and it’d be worth my time if I was serious about playing Ultimate. I even asked Martin Chua, a close friend and teammate in Xavier if he wanted in, and he said sure why not. Soon enough, we decided to stick with the program and become members of Super Bueno.

When I first joined, I really didn’t know how to adjust to the tempo and style of play of the team. I mean, to be honest, my initial reaction was like a player under Mike D’antoni adjusting to the system of Phil Jackson. I wasn’t the most skilled guy on the field, nor was I the most experienced, but I still did my best to adjust to the system. I really didn’t expect much playing time when I first started, since I was new to the team and all. But I was pretty happy that I got to be a part of the lineup, and that I got some exposure and experience in the Summer League. It was also great to play alongside people who could also help me become a better player, and offer insights into the game.

The thing that felt really amazing was that I got to play alongside people who share the same (and even a greater) passion of this beautiful game like I do.

On a side note, while I’m in college, I’m actually really hoping that Ultimate becomes a UAAP sport, or even a part of the sport community (although I know there’s already NUCC) because I’d really love to bring up what Bueno’s helped me become on the field. It’d also be pretty cool to play knowing I represent Ateneo. Hahaha.

As I started training more, I could really feel myself grow as a player. I will admit that I still commit some rookie mistakes that I try to purge from my system of play, but that’s the great thing about Super Bueno; everyone is willing to help you out. Everyone’s willing to further skills with each and everyone’s help. Everyone stands united.

Everyone is a part of something bigger than the individual.

So far, I’ve hit several milestones in my short playing career. I've been able to play the Summer League, the Philippine Ultimate Little League, Malakas & Maganda League, and this November I'll finally be able to play in Manila Spirits.  
And so far, I’m just getting started.

I sincerely believe Super Bueno is one of the best teams in Manila. I’ve seen the determination of everyone in the team, and I can tell that even if we aren’t as quick, or agile, or as well-known as other teams, we still give it our all in the tournaments.

But a team doesn’t need to be full of superstar players to be a championship caliber team. A team like this doesn’t need to be known on a superstar level to succeed. A team like this is always imitated, but never duplicated.

A team like this, I couldn’t ask for a better one.

A team like Super Bueno, you won’t be able to find in another lifetime.

This is a team I’m really glad I joined, and I’m really hoping to stick with these guys until the end. Oretachiwaaaaa, Bueno!


“Greatness is wherever someone is trying to find it.” -Tom Hardy