Something Bigger Than Basketball for San Beda

San Beda went to Bayugan City trying to win games. By the time the Red Lions left, the most meaningful thing they brought home was not a trophy. It was help.

The Red Lions finished third in the Mayor Kirk Asis Open Invitational Basketball Tournament after beating the Got Skills/Letran side in the battle for third place.

It was not the finish San Beda initially wanted, but it was meaningful nonetheless. The third-place result came with prize money worth P150,000, and the Red Lions decided to turn it over to teammate MJ Vailoces to help pay the medical expenses of his grandmother, who had been confined in the hospital.

The family’s public appeal showed how urgent the situation had become. Vailoces’ grandmother had been confined at Silliman University Medical Center in Dumaguete, with hospital bills already reaching more than ₱200,000 and continuing to rise.

For San Beda, the situation was not something they only learned about after the tournament. Team captain RC Calimag said Vailoces had already opened up to the team before they left for Bayugan.

“Before we left for Bayugan, MJ already told the team that he was struggling because of his lola,” Calimag said in an exclusive interview with ALL-STAR.

“He can’t even join practice because of that. So we felt that we can help him by playing hard and just giving it our all.”

That gave San Beda’s campaign a different weight.

The Red Lions had an uneven run in the tournament. They absorbed losses, had to fight through a difficult bracket, and needed to make the most of their chance in the battle for third. In a normal tournament, the third-place game can sometimes feel like a consolation assignment. For San Beda, it became a game with a purpose beyond standings.

Calimag was one of the players who carried that purpose onto the floor. He emerged as San Beda’s top performer in the third-place game, helping the Red Lions finish the tournament on a winning note with 33 points.

“We felt it at the third game,” Calimag said. “We just reminded each other that we have each other’s backs and no matter what decision we make, we’re going to do it together.”

After San Beda secured the third-place prize, they immediately gave it to Vailoces.

“As we got it, binigay na agad,” Calimag said.

A teammate was going through something heavy, his family needed support, and San Beda had found a way to help.

For Vailoces, the gesture clearly meant more than the amount itself. Calimag said MJ later sent a message to the team group chat, telling his teammates they had become “a huge part of his lola’s recovery.”

That is the part of the story that will last longer than the final score.

In the end, San Beda did not just bring home a third-place finish. They brought home proof that when one Red Lion needed help, the rest of the team answered.