By: Joaquin Cortez
Hubert Bautista once wanted little to do with basketball.
Now, the UP Integrated School standout is beginning to make his mark on the UAAP stage, armed with lessons from his father that continue to guide him through the early stages of his career.
Bautista delivered his best performance yet in the UAAP Season 89 16-and-under basketball tournament on Saturday, tallying 21 points and four steals to power UPIS past Adamson University, 76-71, and give the Fighting Maroons their first win of the season.
The victory also marked UPIS’ third win since Season 87, with two of its previous victories coming against De La Salle-Zobel last year.
The Fighting Maroons raced to a 28-5 lead after the opening quarter before Adamson mounted a comeback in the second half. The Soaring Falcons outscored UPIS, 42-36, after halftime, but the Fighting Maroons’ blistering start proved enough as they held on for a wire-to-wire victory.
Despite the breakthrough for the rebuilding program, Bautista felt far from satisfied.
“Adamson is a great team, and they gave us a run for our money,” the 14-year-old Bautista said. “We hope we could play a little bit better next time, if we can.”
(C) UAAP Season 89 Media Team
For Bautista, however, Saturday’s performance represented more than just a strong individual outing. It was another reminder of the lessons his father, Homer Bautista, founder of City Hoops Manila and a former coach, instilled in him from a young age.
Growing up, basketball was not a sport Bautista was particularly fond of.
“When I was a little bit younger, to be honest, I really did not like basketball,” he said.
That changed after one game in which Bautista found himself playing particularly well, prompting him to give the sport another chance. Learning about his father’s work in grassroots basketball also gave him another reason to embrace the game.
“When I found out that my father was the owner of the City Hoops [Manila], I was like, ‘I wanna show that City Hoops is actually a really good league,’” Bautista recalled.
While his father’s basketball background gave him an avenue to grow in the sport, Bautista pointed to one lesson above all that has stayed with him: trust.
“Easily, the trust in yourself,” Bautista said when asked about the biggest lesson he learned from his father. That lesson proved especially important early in the season, when Bautista admitted that his first few outings for UPIS were far from his best.
“The first few games I’ve had in this U-16 season, it was very bad, to say the least,” he said.
Bautista opened the season with eight points on 2-of-8 shooting against University of the East before scoring 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting against University of Santo Tomas. Facing National University, he managed just six points while missing nine of his attempts.
After finally putting together the kind of performance he had been looking for, Bautista found himself looking back on the advice his father had given him.
“Now that I’ve had a great game, I know full well that my father was right, that I should always trust in myself and trust in my teammates, every single game that I go in and every single practice I go to,” he said.
