The history of the National Collegiate Athletic Association is not complete without mentioning the home of many of the league’s great dynasties: the San Sebastian College-Recoletos (SSC-R).
Since it joined the league in 1969, San Sebastian has produced current pros like Calvin Abueva and Ian Sangalang in basketball and Grethcel Soltones in volleyball, to veritable NCAA legends like Rommel Adducul and Rodney Santos.
The 1990s, in particular, was a golden decade for the Golden Stags, who dominated multiple disicplines.
Baste, the colloquial term popularly used for the school, has been a powerhouse program in basketball, with a total of 12 men’s basketball titles and five juniors’ titles after winning their first in 1973, less than five years since they joined the league.
From 1993 to 1997, however, they built a dynasty that won the basketball for five consecutive years with a team that saw the likes of Santos and Adducul, both NCAA Most Valuable Players (MVPs), and several other future PBA players such as Jasper Ocampo, Ulysses Tanigue, Brixter Encarnacion, and Topex Robinson pass through its ranks.
SSC-R also had a memorable run to the NCAA title in 2009, behind Jimbo Aquino and the ‘Pinatubo Trio’ made up of Abueva, Sangalang, and Ronald Pascual. Abueva and Sangalang would both be named MVPs later in their collegiate careers, in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
In volleyball, the '90s was also a decade to remember as the school continued its 10-year title streak which started in School Year 1986-87.
After the streak was broken in the school years 1997-98 and 1998-99, the Lady Stags again won four straight from School Years 1999-2000 to 2002-03.
In total, the San Sebastian volleyball team had 23 women's volleyball titles and nine for the men's side. Many of the women's titles were under the legendary volleyball coach Roger Gorayeb.
SSC-R also dominated track and field in the '90s with its juniors squad getting seven titles in the said decade. The Recto-based squad won a total of 11 titles in the juniors division and four in the seniors.
As the upcoming season draws near, San Sebastian will have a chance to start building a modern dynasty as a new page turns in the NCAA's history books.
—JMB, GMA News
