By ADRIAN STEWART CO

The Abanse Negrense-NBTC Local Qualifying Tournament will kick off with the North and South Negros Cluster matches in Negros Occidental’s Manapla and Pontevedra towns, respectively, on Saturday, November 16.

The tournament is open to school and non-school teams, ball clubs and teams representing local government units (LGUs).

Eligible players are high school or college students born not earlier than January 2005, with Filipino lineage.

Under the tournament format, all competing teams will be divided into three clusters: North, South and Central Negros, where the top teams from each cluster move on to the NBTC League or the Visayas Regional Championships in February 2025.

The winning team from each cluster will compete against champions from Central Visayas, Panay Island and Eastern Visayas Clusters.

Moreover, the Top 4 teams from each regional tournament (North Luzon, Mindanao, Visayas, and South Luzon) will advance to the national finals at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in March 2025.

The NBTC national finals is a week-long tournament featuring 32 participating teams, including the regional champions, Top 4 teams from the University Athletic Association of the Philippines and National Collegiate Athletic Association, global participants and wild card qualifiers.

The event represents a partnership among the Negros Occidental provincial government, the Abanse Negrense Sports Programs and the National Basketball Training Center, led by founder and National Program Director Eric Altamirano.

Founded in 2006, the NBTC is the largest grassroots basketball program in the Philippines, designed to provide youth with training and opportunities in basketball, especially in underrepresented areas.

The program, started in Bacolod City in 2009, continues to reach municipalities and schools across the country by partnering with LGUs./ASC, WDJ