ABS-CBN to cover the 10th SM-NBTC National High School Championships

ABS-CBN Integrated Sports' Dino Laurena and NBTC Program Director Eric Altamirano

The biggest high school basketball tournament in the country is about to reach its exciting conclusion, with ABS-CBN in tow.

Celebrating its tenth season, the National Basketball Training Center is an official grassroots program of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, and one of its major projects has been the National High School Championships, basically putting together the best high schools all across the country to determine the champion.

The 2016-17 edition featured just under 800 schools, in which the field was whittled down to 20 through the city and then the regional championships presented by Freego.

Joining them are four overseas-based squads from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. The field will then be subdivided into Div I and Div II brackets in determining which teams will be crowned the champions, with this portion of the festivities taking place from March 13-16 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

This is where ABS-CBN's partnership with the SM-NBTC comes in. Formally agreed upon publicly recently in a press conference, ABS-CBN will broadcast this portion of the competition, as well as the All-Star Game for both Div I and Div II, on its top-rated sports channel, S+A. This is the second straight year ABS-CBN is taking care of the telecast of the tourney.

The Finals of the Div I and Div II SM-NBTC HS Championships will be shown on March 16 at 6pm and 8pm, respectively, while the All-Star Games will be shown on March 17, starting at 2pm.

Here is what Laurena and Altamirano had to say about the partnership.

Laurena: “Even from the first time we had a discussion with the NBTC, we felt it was necessary to provide a platform where you will see the best of the best high school basketball players in the country. We want to help see them grow and develop as well as to showcase the fact there is a program that develops grassroots basketball. We felt that this wasn’t a one-year thing. We know it provides an invaluable benefit to our audience out there. And we know we are partnering with the best organization in terms of youth basketball development.”

Altamirano: “NBTC is on our 10th year and we are very excited to partner with ABS-CBN. We believe that ABS-CBN will help us reach out and create awareness for the program."