Blue Haus shares success story

With four championships to its credit, Blue Haus has become the most successful Masters team in CNMI basketball in the last three years.

Blue Haus’ Edwin Santos fakes off the defense of Armatech’s Bong Malasarte, left, and Yosh Gabaldon, partly hidden, during their Masters semis game in the UFO caging last month at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Blue Haus owned back-to-back titles (2013 and 2015) in the United Filipino Organization Basketball League and won the Master crowns in the 2015 Graphics Invitational Masters Basketball League and 2014 Emon Lodge No. 179 Brotherhood Basketball League-Docomo Pacific Cup. Bagging these championship wins were no ordinary fetes, considering Blue Haus did it in style—going unbeaten in those four tournaments.

In the 2013 UFO caging, Blue went 12-0, capping the perfect season with an 88-79 victory over defending champion MDX/Armatech. In 2014, Blue Haus held an immaculate 8-0 slate in the Emon Lodge league, completing the sweep with a 71-42 trashing of Mariana Resort.

Early this year, Blue Haus earned its third undefeated record after notching a 9-0 mark in the Graphics Invitational caging. The formidable squad won the championship in another convincing fashion after routing KB Hite in the finale, 94-48.

Then last weekend, Blue Haus kept its unblemished mark after crushing Motion Auto, 100-67, in the 2015 UFO caging finale. Blue Haus concluded the tournament with a 7-0 record.

With these successive championships and undefeated records in three years, Blue Haus team leaders said knowing every player’s role on the team, having no superstar mentality, and playing without complacency were the important factors in their title runs.

“Every player understands their role on the team. We have our starters and bench players and when it’s their time to play they know what to do. Our bench players don’t demand much playing time and often asked to be put in the game when we are already assured of a win,” Blue Haus coach Sam Fernandez said.

He added that Blue Haus does not stack up talented players and wants to recruit someone who needs to get back to basketball and be active again and play supporting roles.

“We’re good with six to seven solid players and the rest are very reliable backups. When we playe together, there is no star on the team as I said earlier, they know their respective roles,” he added.

Edsel Mendoza, who won the MVP award in last week’s UFO caging and scored 26 points in Blue Haus’ title win over Motion Auto, seconded Fernandez.

“We have a balance team and we don’t play to be superstars individually, we play together and communicate well most importantly. Everyone has a role whether we have playing time or not. We understand and no one complains,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza added they play all out, regardless if it’s a regular season game or a playoff.

“I have a son (Kobee Mendoza) and family who watch all my games, so in a way I try to show him even though I’m 28 years older than he is, I still push myself to no limits both on defense and offense. Kobee and I are both very competitive and we talk smack when we don’t perform well in our games,” Mendoza said.

Fernandez agrees to giving everything you got on the court, noting that it was Edsel and another long-time member of the team Tony Diaz who encouraged their teammates to keep working hard during their title match against Motion Auto even though they were comfortably ahead in the third quarter.

“Tony and Edsel always remind their teammates not to be over confident and think the team is way ahead. They inspired the rest of us to keep our intensity all throughout the game,” Fernandez said.

With this attitude and the players’ ability to work together and trust each other, Fernandez added the team is every coach’s dream.

“This is a very coachable team and I think that adds to one of the key factors in our success,” the Blue Haus mentor said.

Blue Haus aims to keep the streak as they compete in two more tournaments this year. The squad will remain motivated knowing that a lot of teams are out to get them.

“Our motivation, really, is knowing that teams are stacking up talented players just to beat us in every league. That’s what makes it fun for us,” said Mendoza, who thanked Blue Haus, a general merchandise store in Garapan, for supporting the squad in the last three years.