Something great happened this weekend, an event that would make Filipinos very proud… if they only knew about it. The Philippines, the newest addition and lowest-ranked team in Division 2 of the Asian 5 Nations (A5N) Rugby, destroyed powerhouse Thailand in the semis and home favorite India in the final to win the Division 2 Championship.

Our team, nicknamed the Philippine Volcanoes, is unbeaten in three years in the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU), having seized the Division 4 Championship in 2008, the Division 3 Championship in 2009, and now Division 2. With this win, they charge into Division 1 of the A5N in 2011, making this the longest promotion streak in ARFU history.

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“Tonight I overflow with joy and gratitude. I am thankful that I decided to get into boxing,” said Pacquiao. His coach Freddie Roach was named trainer of the year.

It was the fourth time Roach, who also trains British boxer Amir Khan, had won the award. Pacquiao was picking up the boxer of the year title for the third time.

“I confronted poverty by trusting God and dreaming big,” said Pacquiao, a newly elected congressman in the Philippines.

Francis Casey Alcantara and Fil-American Raymond Sarmiento bowed out in the boys’ doubles second round of the French Open.

The 18-year-old Alcantara and Sarmiento were eliminated by Spain’s Carlos Boluda-Purkiss and Italy’s Alessandro Collela, 7-6 (4), 6-3, who advanced against German second seeds Peter Heller and Kevin Krawietz in the quarterfinals.

The Germans earlier hacked out a 6-1, 6-1 over French Lucas Szewczyk and Thomas Szewcyk.

Alcantara and Sarmiento, who teamed up to win in the Grade 1 Mitsubishi Lancer Open last March, groped for form in the red clay courts.

The other Filipino bet, Jeson Patrombon, was eliminated in the second round of the singles Tuesday by Duilio Beretta of Peru, 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-2. Sarmiento bowed out in the singles in the first round.

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“I have known deep down that Hilary and I were the best team together,” Lindsay Burdette said. “That showed me that it was the right thing and it just made me work that much harder so that we can be together.”

The No. 2 team in the country all season, Burdette and Barte have really proved their dominance. With an overall record of 36-6, the team is Stanford’s first NCAA doubles champions since Alice Barnes and Erin Burdette — Lindsay’s older sister — defeated Amber Liu and Ann Yelsey in 2005 in an all-Stanford final.

Their run to the final was a fairly routine affair. They recorded four wins before the final match, all in straight sets. In fact, their most dominant match came in the semifinals over No. 4 Andrea Remynse and Yasmin Schnack of UCLA, as they won 6-0, 6-1

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On June 4, President Barack Obama will congratulate members of Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Real Salt Lake team for winning the league title last season.

Among those, Obama will shake hands with is Salt Lake goalkeeper and Filipino American soccer star Nick Rimando.

Rimando helped defeat the Los Angeles Galaxy’s, led by David Beckham, by saving two crucial attempts at goal during the penalty phase during the championship game to capture the MLS Cup. For his efforts, Rimando was named the 2009 MLS Cup Most Valuable Player and next week, he’ll be meeting with the leader of the free world.

The 31-year-old, 5’ 11″ Rimando, a 10-year MLS veteran and two-time MLS Cup Champion, is proud to represent the Filipino community as the only known Filipino in the MLS. Rimando’s father is Filipino and his mother is Mexican.

“I just try to go out there everyday and do my job,” said Rimando to Henni Espinosa of ABS-CBN. “If I can represent the Filipino community like that, then I’m happy.”

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His Olympic victory was touted as a medical miracle. However, Celski says he’s now taking a year off from skating and is still undecided if he’s taking part in the next Winter Games.

“I’m still undecided. It would be dumb to say that I’m not gonna go to the next games, but I have other things I want to accomplish in my lifetime, maybe get into some kind of sports management of marketing, or international studies ‘coz I noticed when I traveled around the world that I really liked to get into other countries’ cultures,” Celski explained.

Celski’s mother, Sue, is a second-generation Filipino-American. His father, Bob is of Polish descent. He was born in Monterey, California but grew up in Federal Way, Washington. He still has some relatives in the Philippines and would like to visit his mother’s homeland in the future.

Asked about growing up Filipino, Celski says “I love the food, the culture, the music. Every time I go to my grandma’s house, she tries to teach me Tagalog. But I don’t know that much, if you ask me ‘kumusta ka’ I’d say mabuti.”

At the Winter Games, fans got a glimpse of his tattoo, which showed the sun and stars from the Philippine flag. Celski says he and his 2 brothers chose the symbolic image to represent brotherhood, as well as their roots.

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Baseball season is here. For Filipino Americans, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s a particularly proud time to be a fan.

One of the sport’s best pitchers is Pinoy, after all.

Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants won the prestigious Cy Young Award last year, the sport’s top pitching honor. He was also the first player to win the award in his first two full seasons in the major league. (Filipinos will have a chance to see him in action on April 27 when the Giants celebrate Filipino Heritage Night.)

Lincecum is a second-generation Filipino American, his mother, the daughter of Filipino immigrants. I actually didn’t find out about this until recently, when one of my students in a Filipino-American communities class at Cal State East Bay mentioned it. I was already a Lincecum fan, having enjoyed watching his unique flowing style on the mound.

Lincecum has given the San Francisco Giants and their many Filipino-American fans a much-needed boost. He’s widely considered to be an unusual pitching sensation. He’s wiry and has a giant stride, earning him the nickname “The Freak.”

If Victoria “Vicki” Manalo Draves had represented the Philippines when she won two gold medals in springboard and platform diving in the 1948 London Summer Olympics, there would have been monuments erected all over the Philippines to celebrate her inspiring victory and to mark the end of the nation’s long gold medal drought in the Olympics.

But because the San Francisco-born daughter of Teofilo Manalo proudly represented the United States in the 1948 Olympics, her name is virtually unknown in the Philippines.

While she is not unknown in the US, when Vicki Manalo Draves died from heart and cancer complications in her home in Palm Springs, California on April 11, 2010, news of her death did not appear in the local newspaper until almost two weeks later (”Olympic Diver Victoria Draves Dies” The Desert Sun, April 23, 2010).

News of her death still has not appeared in any of the San Francisco newspapers even though she was born and raised in the City which belatedly honored her in 2005 by naming its newest park after her. In that same year, she was honored as the Most Outstanding Alumnus of City College of San Francisco.

When Vicki received her award and spoke at the Commencement Ceremonies of City College at the Masonic Auditorium on May 27, 2005 before 2000 graduating students, she received a resounding ovation.

It was a recognition that was much-deserved and long overdue for the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals in both springboard and platform diving events in the same games and the first swimmer or diver to win two individual gold medals in the Olympics. Vicki was also the first Asian and the first Filipino to do so.

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San Francisco scrambled to recover after yielding a run in the 10th inning and two more in the 11th to fall to the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-6. But the Giants’ extra-inning adventures didn’t seem as stunning as the events of the ninth inning, when they squandered the combination of Tim Lincecum on the mound and a 4-1 lead.

The stage was set for another celebration of Lincecum’s glorious skills. He was three outs away from becoming the first Giants pitcher to win not only his first five starts of the season but also five games in April since John Burkett in 1993. A complete game also appeared within reach for Lincecum, who had surrendered three hits, struck out 11 and thrown 98 pitches entering the ninth.

But after walking Shane Victorino on four pitches with one out, Giants manager Bruce Bochy yanked Lincecum in favor of closer Brian Wilson without hesitation

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Photo from time Life archive

She became the first woman to win a gold medal in springboard and platform diving. With this historic athletic achievement, she was celebrated by many as a symbol of the American dream.

Draves was the Filipino American community’s “first national heroine,” said Fred Cordova, a founder of the Filipino American National History Society.

“Just the fact that she was the first American (woman) to win two gold medals (in diving), the fact that she was Filipino American, that was the beginning of a breakthrough to us,” Cordova said.

Draves, who lived in Palm Springs, died of heart and cancer complications on April 11. She was 85.

Born on Dec. 31, 1924, Draves and her twin were the youngest members of their family in San Francisco. Her father was Filipino, her mother English.

“Her early childhood, they were poor. She came from a poor family,” her husband and diving coach, Lyle Draves, said.

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