Happy Birthday, Rene Canent ( Feb 23 )

He's small but he plays tall, as one coach would so aptly put it. 'Maliit, pero, matinik,' a follower of Tanduay remarked, upon seeing the flushed-in-the-face, perspiring, smallish guard make mince-meat of his bigger-and-taller opponents in the other squads like Noritake, Tru-Orange, Crispa, other teams. He's tireless, he's good, he's one of the finer PBA hoopsters who's making the Tanduay quintet sparkle with life, with animo, with brio (as in a symphony), making every minute of his stay inside the hardpaid by the fan and the PBA court worth the price of the ticket follower. The fellow is none other than Rene Canent, a Paltok, Sta. Mesaraised lad, one of four boys and family (he's from Batangas). one girl in Jacinto Ramon Canent's Canent comes from a solid-well knit family. There are two brothers who are physicians in the family; most of his kins, if this writer remembers right, are either now in the States as permanent residents there, or working there. Take a good, scrutinizing look at this hoopster's stance at the mahogany. He's the
indefatigable, hardworking court-general. The other team might be pouring it on, but you'd never see him get dispirited or disappointed or simply fazed. He keeps on, working hard, guarding frenetically his quarry (sometimes he'd even asked to act as sentinel against the taller imports! And one could almost imagine the 'discrepancy' and seeming irony of this a small, punylooking player flailing his arms against a tall Edmonds of Knight of the other teams! ), occasionally wiping his brow with his arms (the sweat drips copiously sometimes, marring one's vision), alertly guarding, shouting instructions to his teammates, trying to harass his adversary. Rene is the son of Jacinto Ramen Conent of Batangas and Rosario Alandy Canent of Quezon. His other brothers, Ramon, Roy, Ronald, have all indulged in one sport or another. Rene goes for music ("all kinds, classics to jazz to modern pieces"). plays chess, enjoys movies tremendously, smokes but doesn't drink ("only coffee...") and admires foreign NBA stars like Walt Frazier and Dave Debusscherre of the New York Knicks.