Birthday Greetings to Evalson Valencia ( Jan 02 )

Happy Birthday, Evalson "Boy" Valencia

1979 PBA Rookie direct hire
Western Institute of Technology guard
MICAA San Miguel Braves forward
1979 PBA Open Conference champion
6-season PBA veteran
3-PBA team player

Source : Assorted Magazines (PBA Archives Collections)

The 1983 PBA All-Filipino and Reinforced Filipino Conferences witnessed the resurrection of an almost forgotten Evalson Valencia. After his forgettable stints with San Miguel and Utex, Boy Valencia found the chance to show the stuff that he's really made of. And he's proven to be a reliable forward for the Sanyu Group of Companies quintet. Valencia has lived up to the expectations of SGC President Danny Arrieta and team manager Rufino Ignacio. During the formative stages of the SGC quintet, Arrieta commented that he put up the team in order to give a second chance to underrated cagers who were cut off from their mother teams. And Valencia, through his hardcourt heroics, was deadet on making up for lost time. Boy Valencia, a 26-year old Ilonggo, never had illusions of getting this far in the basketball world. "What I wanted most was to finish college. I took up enneering at the Western Institute of Technology." Boy was discovered by Major Edwin Cuenco, For two years, he, along with the members of the 1977 Inter-secondary champion Victoria Salcedo H.S., were trained in a camp at Sara, Iloilo. Then, he got recruited by San Miguel's Ning Ramos. For one and a half years, he played for San Miguel in the MICAA. And then him to play in the PBA in 1979. After Royal Tru-Orange coach Ed Ocampo got three years and only 36 games with San Miguel, he transferred to Utex. However, he only played seventeen games as a Wrangler and then Utex folded up. "Medyo malas. But I've had some good breaks too. Kaya lang, talagang kulang pa ako. I was still young. I trans ferred to Utex: Gusto kong mag-iba ng team at baka medyo mag-iba ang takbo. Pero wala ring nangyari." Valencia suffered a sprain that sidelined him for most of last year's games. At Utex, he logged 258.30 minutes, made 44 out of 103 attempts from the field for 42.72%, converted 23 out of 37 from the line for a high 62.16%. He also had 28 defensive and 30 offensive rebounds, in 17 contests. When Utex disbanded, he tried out with the SGC's Manhattan Shirtmakers and was readily taken in. It was a different Evalson Valencia that showed up this year.