Happy Birthday, Anthony "Toby" Poblador ( Nov 15 )

Happy Birthday, Anthony "Toby" Poblador

1988 PBA Rookie Draft 3rd overall pick
Dela Salle Green Archers forward
3-season PBA veteran
2-PBA team player
1991 PBA First Conference champion

Source : Assorted Magazines (PBA Archives Collections)

ANTHONY Poblador, 6-6 rookie slotman of crowd favo- rite Ginebra San Miguel, comes from the Northern Consolidated assembly line. He was recruited from the Ateneo de Davao University in the early 80's to play for La Salle in Manila and at the same time be part of the national training team under American coach Ron Jacobs. But, somewhere along the way, Poblador's development was stymied and while most of his companions at the NCC managed to move up to the pros in the mid-80's, he remained an amateur polishing his skills in the PBL. Some say he's a slow learner. But Toby, as he is fondly called by peers (for his penchant for mixed nuts of that trademark), has his reasons for the delay. "I wanted to finish my studies first," said Toby, a Marketing and Management graduate of La Salle. Thus, he did not concentrate fully on the game, wasting precious years as far as basketball is concerned, but bolstering a better future by way of earning a degree. Toby was born on November 15, 1964 in Bacolod City and is the eldest of five kids (Toby, Tina, Rey Henry, Marjorie and Joshue) of Rey Poblador and the former Clementina Yulo. "Billy Leonor, a friend of Danding Cojuangco, recruited me for La Salle in 1983. I consider myself fortunate having been under the tutelage of Ron Jacobs. I really learned a lot from him, from basics and fundamentals to shooting and dribbling. It's just unfortunate that I never made the nationa! team and things turned out the way they did in 1986." His first amateur ballclub after the NCC fold-up was Purefoods Hotdogs. He sought his release papers from the BAP in 1988 with the hope of being drafted by the Hotdogs.