JOHN ANTHONY AMORES’S turbulent young career is a human story and he needs help, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Policy Board President Dr. Jose Paolo Campos said on Wednesday.
“He [Amores] really needs help and, as we are a Christian country, our narrative is that after the fall is redemption, so this is a human story,” Campos, of season host Emilio Aguinaldo College, added in a news conference called hours after Jose Rizal University expelled Amores.
“I am hoping John Amores will find his own redemption in time,” Campos added.
Amores was a bad boy of the NCAA, having initiated on-court fights against several teams. He ran amok against the College of Saint Benilde Blazers last week and was suspended for the rest of the season.
That proved to be the last straw in his tumultuous stint in a Heavy Bomber jersey in the 98-year-old league.
Campos said that they just cannot shut the door on a person’s future “where an individual can no longer play,” adding that the authority of the league “only stays on the playing years of the players and not go beyond.”
“We don’t really wish his life ends. I am hoping he has the fortitude and patience that one day he will come back and maybe he’ll be a good player someday, a basketball player of course,” Campos said.
“The authority of the NCAA has its own boundary where the school takes over and we can’t meddle with it,” Campos said. “We are very willing to help him, but it’s not going to happen overnight. We believe JRU will also help him.”
NCAA legal counsel Atty. Joseph Noel Estrada said that the criticisms from the public and government officials that Amores be meted a lifetime ban isn’t the solution.
“It doesn’t matter how long or how short his suspension is, but what will happen to him beyond the incident,” Estrada said. “We do not stop at the incident alone and we’re taking this issue seriously.”
“The league is open to lay down some conditions on his possible return,” he said. “The character has to be demonstrated, and JRU, on its part, has to assure the NCAA that he is ready for a change or reform within his remaining residency in the NCAA.”
he added.
Estrada added: “It’s the same thing with his school, where they have a program in mental health and how serious they are providing serious guidance and counseling to Amores based on their statement.”
Lyceum’s Herc Callanta who heads the investigation committee of the Amores case said that referees Dennis Escaros, Antonio Baguion and Anthony Sulit are in preventive suspension as part of the ongoing investigation.
Callanta said the committee is also after the fan whose heckling made Amores act from bad to worst.