Gilas Pilipinas Youth are all set to compete in the FIBA U16 Asian Championship in Doha, Qatar. 

Hear what players Caelum Harris, LeBron Nieto, Jared Bahay, and Jacob Bayla have to say about representing the country and their preparations for the upcoming tournament.

Caelum Harris

On what he learned by training alongside PBA players for SEA Games

The most important thing to become a great team is communication. If you don’t communicate with your teammates, everything will fail eventually. I feel like the biggest thing that you have to do as a team is communicate. All of [the veterans] really told me about everything I needed to do – they all came up to me individually. Probably the one I spent most time with was Mo [Tautuaa] because he guided me and told me about certain aspects of the game that I’m gonna have to get used to and adjust to, which I kind of understand now. 

Assessment of team’s preparations for FIBA U16 tournament

I’m very pleased with how much work and how much growth I’ve seen since day one. Coming into tryouts, I didn’t really know what to expect but now since the final team has been put together, I can say I’m very pleased with everybody. 

On representing the Philippines

I’m very excited. I know it’s a big opportunity to represent a country, especially a country that respects the game of basketball. I’m more than happy and glad to face great opponents.

LeBron Nieto

Advice he got from brothers Matt and Mike


’Yung advice nila sa akin is to always give my best sa lahat ng ginagawa ko. And to always enjoy the oppourtunity because this opportunity is once in a lifetime. 

Nung bata pa lang ako pinapanood ko sila sa TV, nung naglaro sila sa FIBA Asia at FIBA Worlds. Gusto ko talaga makapasok and matry yung mga nagawa nila. They really inspired me to always do my best. Kaya this coming FIBA Asia Championship, I will really try my hardest to help the team win.

On challenges about learning Coach Josh’s system

At first it was challenging but masaya kasi I’m doing the thing that I love. Basketball talaga yung sport na first love ko. It took a while [to learn the system], pero good thing na lang the coaches and some of my teammates were there  to guide me. If may mali ako, sasabihin nila. Kung tama naman, nireremind nila ako na kailangan yun uli gagawin the next time. 

Jared Bahay

On making the Gilas Youth lineup

Sobrang proud ko talaga sa sarili ko. Di ko inaasahanan yung maabot ko, na makakasama ako sa lineup. 

On learning Coach Josh’s system

Coach Josh’s system is really challenging. Pinagharapan ko talaga i-learn yung system niya and para maunderstand ko. 

On importance of tune-up games

Sobrang importante talaga yun, kasi game yun e. Kailangan namin yung game situations – pano pag lamang kami or down kami last minute of the quarter. Sobrang importante yun sa preparations namin for the FIBA Asia [Championship].

Jacob Bayla

On representing the Philippines and playing for Gilas Youth

It’s definitely an honor and blessing from God because you never know what opportunity will come to your table. So you just gotta take advantage of it and just play your heart out. 

I think it’s a great opportunity to play internationally. You got a lot of eyes on you and I feel like it’s gonna raise my stock and everybody else’s stock because they see you playing for the international team. That’s just a really big thing here and worldwide.

On developing relationships with teammates  

My teammates, I love them. We built a really close bond. I feel like our chemistry is better, especially the karaoke sessions with the team, it just helped us bond. Just talking them —I understand a little bit of Tagalog—they make jokes and I start laughing. Our chemistry is really good. 

On getting inspired by Dwight Ramos’ journey

Dwight Ramos is 30 minutes from where I live. So just seeing him go from Fullerton to here and making a name for himself just really inspired me.