Monday, August 19, 2013

100 Batches of the St. Scho DWTL

The SSC-DWTL throught the years

Upon hearing that the St. Scholastica’s College Days with the Lord will be holding its 100th Batch, I was quite nostalgic and also happy for the the SSC-DWTL. It was a time for remembering the years that I would rather spend serving for the Lord and enjoyed sleeping on the cold floor and being a kuya to hundreds of Kulasas. One hundred batches in twenty six years only means that amidst all the adversities the SSC-DWTL has faced, it has weathered so many storms and more importantly what it has now is the backbone of a better support team that means it will be there for another one hundred batches.

The Music Crew

I was a teener back in the summer of  April 1987 when the Ateneo High school announced that it will start to support two All-Female High schools in spreading the Days with the Lord to other schools, the two schools were St. Scholastica’s College and Markyknoll (now Miriam) High School. Both weekends were scheduled at the Pollock Renewal Center and both schools will have teacher observers as part participants and around 15-18 female participants. Some of the participants were incoming fourth year high school while the rest just graduated from high school. 

The HT crew

Like any other Days with the Lord weekend the most critical part in sustaining the community is the first ten batches and its support system – the dedicated staffers. The first weekend handled by the St. Scho gals was at the Subiaco Retreat house just across St. Scholastica’s college. After four more batches there was suddenly everyone was busy doing other things that left the DWTL without a rector to sustain the initial efforts. Back then, it was hard to pool each other together since Social Media wasn't in full blast then and having meetings were hard since most of the heads were in different colleges in metro manila so planning a weekend was so hard.

Batch 100

One thing I liked about Scholasticans is their sense of coming in together amidst their many differences. Eventually the sixth batch came in January of 1990 which was again held at the Pollock Renewal Center.  This time, the original batch of St. Scho dazers breathed new life to the program by getting younger participants to be able to pass the DWTL to the new ones. The plan was to guide the new dazers in running the show that would eventually secure the future of the St. Scho days.

Kulasas who Live to Serve 

In the next few batches I never thought that working with the Scholasticans would eventually made them trust me enough to be some kind of an adviser of the DWTL.  I was just lucky I was up to the task and did my best to live the part. Years went by and batch after batch I helped out the core group and rectors on how they can mount the weekend. We tried to put some continuity and predictablity into the days with the lord weekends so that it will remain strong and withstand the problems that might arise specially funds and venue. The St. Scho days with the lord took a lot of my time and unfortunately when I got busy with my work in STI sometime in 2003 I slowly faded and passed on my duties to the elder core members for them to carry on the tradition.  The past years had me come back to play music and just observe as the new generation of St. Scho dazers take turns in serving the lord.

100 Batches and still standing


A few years ago, I was informed that St. Scho management had some run ins with the St. Scho Days with the Lord. I was not surprised since it is really hard to understand the DWTL. As ive said in previous communities that we handled, one cannot understand the DWTL if one has not experienced it. I remember talking to nuns in one community we handled, they asked us to justify the events happening which unfortunately was not in the best interest of the nun’s or the school’s beliefs. In response, the St. Scho days changed its name to Live to Serve.  I am just happy that all these years the St. Scho Days with Lord has adapted and survived every challenge.  One hundred batches is a testament that whatever happens the St. Scho Days with the Lord has helped more Scholasticans become closer to Christ and more importantly a venue where one can renew their spirit and relationship with Christ. Congratulations to the Live to Serve - the St. Scholastica’s College  Days with The Lord.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Gilas Pilipinas halt Qatar win streak

One of Japeth's three dunks

Japeth Aguilar put a punctuation mark on the Smart Gilas win over Team Qatar as his empathic dunk with 7 seconds left in the game showed that TEAM Philippines has awaken from the slumber that they took five days ago.  Team Pilipinas beat QATAR 80 – 70 as apparently the point spread was enough to fend off the rallying middle east team. Marcus Douthhit led the team with 19 points as he literally scored at will as the Qataris could not keep up with his inside presence while  Aguilar on the other hand added 14 points.

Marcus was a force in the middle

The home team controlled the pace of the game from the get go as Jeff Chan started the ball rolling with two three pointers right away. The Filipinos then zoomed in to a 15 – 6 lead as Gabe Norwood tried to shut down Qatar’s naturalized player Jarvis Hayes. Hayes is the tournament leader in points with 22 points per game but the Filipinos did well in shutting him down. He still managed to score a team high 17 points but most of those came from garbage time and he even missed two crucial free throws right around the time they had a blistering run in the fourth period. The Qataris eventually caught up in the first quarter to tie the score at 20 – all.

Jeff Chan buries a three

The second quarter proved to be the difference in the match as the Filipinos scored one basket after the other and their tight defense held the Qatar team to just 9 points. The Filipinos through LA Tenorio, Gary David, Jason William and Jimmy Alapag alternated in scoring to give Team Gilas a 47 – 29 lead.  The Qataris never knew what hit them.  There was tension in the third quarter when Marcus Douthit came down holding his knees and eventually limping off the court. With Douthit out, the Qataris used the first few minutes of the fourth quarter to get back into the game.

Jolens move by LA Tenorio

The Qataris opened the quarter with a 14 – 2 run as their outside sniping finally came into play and their inside play finally making wonders. Aside from Hayes, Efran Ali Saeed scored inside to give the home team a big scare. Jeff Chan sank a free throw and Marcus Douthit eventually came back in to help the Smart Gilas team stem the tide. Japeth Aguilar showed his athleticism by grabbing missed rebounds by Qatar and at the same time scoring at the free throw line and dunking on everyone else.

Crowd favorite Gary David on the move


The win made the Qatar vs. Chinese Taipei game a crucial one today. If Chinese Taipei wins the Philippines will have to meet China in the Quarterfinals. A win by Qatar will have the Smart Gilas take first place in Group E and will meet most probably Kazahkstan. If Qatar wins by 16 points then they take first place then RP comes in second. Tough task for the Filipinos so lets troop to the MOA Arena to cheer our team. LABAN PILIPINAS.

  
 Japeth's 2nd dunk


The scores
PHILIPPINES (80)
Douthit 19, Aguilar 14, Chan 12, Tenorio 7, William 7, Alapag 5, David 5, de Ocampo 4, Norwood 3, Pingris 2, Fonacier 2, Fajardo 0.
QATAR (70)
Hayes 17, Saeed 13, Abdi 9, Musa 8, Daoud 8, Elhadary 5, Mohamed 4, Mohammed 4, Mo. Abdullah 2, Ali 0, Ma. Abdullah 0, Saad 0.

Quarter scores
20 – all, 47 – 29, 63 – 44, 80 – 70