Birthday Greetings to Yves Dignadise ( Dec 18 )

YVES DIGNADICE, 19, is from Iloilo. He is the second of two kids bom to Florencio Dignadice and Lydia Arones. According to Jacobs, of the four new players, Yves is more advanced in his basketball lessons. Yves started early and had his acid test during a town leauge in Passi, After this, he played for two sea sons with the Chinese Commercial High dribblers, He transferred to Western institute of Technology and continued playing basketball for a year. Last year, he had a fine season with the West Negros College Mustangs. Early this year, Yves became one of the members of the Western Visayas Regional Athletic Association quintet that participated in the Palarong Pambansa held in Tacloban City, Leyte. Then he went to Manila and agreed to play for La Salle. On Ron Jacobs, he says, "Coach Jacobs is strict. Gusto niya 'yung itinuturo niya nakukuha mo. I learned a lot of defense." Yves, who plays center-forward, likes the playing styles of Philip Cezar and Julius Erving. He is a first year Commerce student at La Salle,

Yves, young at 19, was a member of the 1984 RP Youth squad that placed third behind the Koreans and the Chinese in the 8th Asian Youth Basketball Champlonships held in Seoul from August 7 to 20 this year. But actually, even before the Korean campaign, Yves was already included in the NC line-up. He was already a shoo-in to make it to the NCC fold. Presently, three other 1964 Youth cagers Ludovico Valenciano, Alfonso Solis and Anthony Mendoza are also playing for NCC. Another 84 Youth standout, Rey Cuenco, played eight games for NCC during the first conference then was relegated to reserve status doing the second conference. 

SAN Miguel Beer coach Norman Black's headaches regarding former 'problem child' Yves Dignadice have completely dissipated this season and the Beermen are now fully concentrated on their mission of ascending the champion's throne anew. Dignadice is back to his old form, playing with the right attitude and chipping in the much needed contributions aiding his team's quest for glory. It will be recalled that the good looking Dignadice went on AWOL last year and skipped games during the Third conference for no apparent reason or reasons at all. During the same All-Filipino conference, Dignadice was sidelined because of an elbow injury. After he recovered from that, he disappeared just like that. Some reports even had it that he was seen in his native Bacolod City dancing and drinking the nights away with complete abandon. Fact is, Yves came very close to being dropped from the San Miguel Beer roster. However, at least two teams expressed their desire to grab Dignadice despite his new notorious tag of "problem child".