‘Not just about the sport’: Basketball’s impact on Calgary’s Filipino community

Typically, at this time of year, the squeak of the hardwood is faint at the University of Calgary’s Jack Simpson Gymnasium. It’s off-season for the Dinos’ basketball teams, but soon, the men’s squad will make a summertime return for a one-of-a-kind evening called ‘Beyond The Hoops.’

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LONG-FORM AUDIO: Calgary’s Filipino basketball community

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The Gilas Legends, a group of decorated players that represented the Philippines men’s national basketball program, are embarking on a Canadian tour that will stop in our city on Saturday, June 29.

“I think it’s worthwhile for us,” Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren told CityNews 660, thrilled at the chance for his group to go toe-to-toe versus players who have represented the Philippines at world-class tournaments. “They are going to be a challenge for us. I think it’ll be a great eye-opener for my players to play against people of that calibre.

“There are a lot of Filipino community players who have played all over the world, whether that’s just about or slightly into the NBA or around the world in European or Asian professional leagues. They come with a great deal of experience.”

These players, who have brought immense pride to their country in international competitions like the FIBA Asia Cup, FIBA World Cup, and the Olympics, are not just athletes but esteemed ambassadors of the Filipino sports community.

“I would say the Filipino influence on the growth of the sport is really, really quite substantial,” Vanhooren explained. “Their love of the game is huge, and [they] are a great market for us as a Dinos basketball program. These kinds of relationships are really important for that.”

That relationship made Calgary an easy first stop on the Gilas Legends tour, which will also visit Red Deer and Edmonton later this summer.

“We really have a growing Filipino community in Calgary alone, and when there was a proposal for the Gilas Legends tour, our company took advantage of this opportunity,” shared Jody Ann Liwanag with GoHard Sports YYC. “The Gilas Legends players who are coming here have really put the Filipino national team on their backs, like when the country started joining international tournaments, like FIBA or Olympics.”

Organizers say the timing for the event is perfect because June 12 is the Philippines’ Independence Day, and ‘Beyond The Hoops’ will allow the celebrations to extend later into the month.

“You know how Filipinos are — the camaraderie that we have when we have events like this, and we look forward to everyone joining us,” she exclaimed. “But it’s not just Filipinos! We hope the fans and followers of the Dinos will also come and join us.”

Some players on the tour have been to Canada before, and a few have even visited Calgary. Still, it will be a new experience for most who will see Calgary’s Filipino diaspora firsthand.

“We’re excited to show them the hospitality Filipinos and Calgarians have here,” Liwanag added.

“Basketball is not just about the sport. It’s about community.”

The Filipino community in Calgary and across the province continues to grow.

“It’s almost 90,000 in Calgary alone, and there are about 217,000 in Alberta,” according to Cesar Cala, president of Filipinos Rising — a group dedicated to building a resilient and inclusive society across Alberta and Canada.

Cala says there’s been a steady stream of Filipinos coming to our province and our city dating back to the 1960s and 70s, with many professionals, like teachers, engineers, and medical workers, looking for new opportunities abroad.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, there was also a wave of Filipino caregivers that came here, and then a really big chunk came in the 1990s and the 2000s through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” Cala explained. “People were looking for greener pastures because in the Philippines, there is rampant poverty as well as corruption combined with political repression. Canada provided an opportunity for that in terms of immigration policies that opened up waves of immigrants.”

As Filipinos became acclimated to life in Calgary and across Alberta, they were searching for reminders of home. That’s where sports, particularly basketball, played and continue to play a role.

“Basketball. That emanated from North America, and it was just so easily adapted in the Philippines because it’s easy to set up a basketball court compared to other logistically inaccessible sports,” Cala said. “Basketball was enduring because it required less space. If you go to the Philippines, you see halfcourts everywhere — street corners, playgrounds, even in the middle of a rice field. Everyone wanted to be a basketball star.

“Basketball is not just about the sport. It’s about community,” Cala concluded.

James Tabaniag, program director at Calgary Chinooks Basketball, has seen the sport’s influence firsthand, dating back to his early years in Manila.

“When I saw my brothers play basketball,” he recalled. “I just fell in love with it. I felt the ball, and ever since, I didn’t want to take it out of my hands; I was dribbling inside the house and outside the house until they told me to come with them.

“I was just a little kid. I couldn’t even reach the rim, but it was a thrill to have that basketball in my hand.”

Right beside their home, they created a makeshift court. It wasn’t regulation size, but it was enough to hold competitive games of three-on-three or five-on-five halfcourt.

“It gets so intense, and that’s where kind of, like, where the Filipinos thrive when it comes to basketball, just forgetting about all the problems and whatnot, like a small community,” he shared.

The family would also try to catch as much NBA action as possible on television.

“I think there was eight channels, and our TVs don’t have remotes,” he said. “They aired NBA games during Sundays, and it’s like Sunday morning. Or sometimes it depends on the time because it’s from the USA, right? Like 13 hours ahead. Or you miss it, and you look at the news and or the newspaper the next day and see who won.”

But how did his basketball journey bring him to Calgary? It’s quite a story for the now father of two. Tabaniag is now a Red Seal chef. However, he wanted to hone his culinary skills. He moved to the United States on his own to build his career, where he met his wife, and eventually, they settled down in Calgary.

Basketball never left his side, from the Philippines to the USA, and now, in Calgary.

“Basketball was always there. It’s always lingering around. Even when I was in college studying for culinary school back home, I still played in leagues,” he said. “I still want to feel the ball in my hand every time, even if it’s just once a week.”

He saw the need for more basketball opportunities in our city, which led to the birth of Calgary Chinooks right outside his doorstep. He trained his two young sons in his side yard, buying pylons and doing drills. And the rest, as they say, is history.

For Tabaniag, the ‘Beyond The Hoops’ event at the U of C brings everything full circle.

“It’s, I think, just because we are so far away from our country that it brings a little bit of Philippines to us,” he explained. “We miss our country. It’s like 18-hour flights back home. So, it’s not every year that every Filipino can come back. Right? So, like, just seeing these celebrities, it’s something to look forward to.”

Calgary’s Steve Trinidad, owner of Stars Basketball, can’t remember his life without the sport.

His dad played in the Philippines and later in Calgary Filipino leagues after moving to Canada.

“He threw a basketball in my hands, and I never really let go,” Trinidad recalled with a smile. “When I was younger, he would always bring me to his basketball games, and I would watch him. I always wanted to do that, too.”

Eventually, Trinidad’s skills caught the eye of universities. However, he shares that he didn’t perform well during tryouts.

“I was young. I was 17. I was 145 pounds, and I was not a physical specimen,” he remembered. “I played in Filipino leagues and men’s leagues in Calgary just for fun while I was going to school at Mount Royal [University].”

A game of pickup at the school changed his life: the head coach of the Cougars saw him and asked Trinidad if he wanted to practice with the team, even though they were already well into the season.

Trinidad agreed. He went on to help the Cougars win a pair of provincial gold medals and a gold medal at the 2009 CCAA Nationals.

He says his basketball journey is partly due to the passion he saw in the Calgary Filipino community.

“I think when a lot of them immigrated over, a way for them to connect with other Filipinos was to play basketball,” he explained. “They would create leagues. And I think from there it’s just kind of blossomed into this — huge almost social events, where everyone gets to hang out, see each other on the weekends.

“I think if I hadn’t played in those Filipino leagues growing up, I wouldn’t be as good as I was today.”

He also felt he could further give back to the sport, so he connected with Stars Basketball and became its eventual owner in 2017.

“When I started, I was just a university student working there in the summers as a coach,” Trinidad said. “Then, as I kind of kept going along, this was back in 2012, as I kept going along, I just realized how much joy it brought me seeing kids, just getting out there, starting to play for the first time, maybe a little bit shy, intimidated, but just seeing as they went along, realizing, you know, hey, this isn’t so bad. All the confidence that they got from that. I think basketball teaches so many great skills: teamwork, leadership.”