Student athlete Senior Brody Bautista has been selected to play for the U18 Men’s Hockey Team in the Philippines.
“I was honored. It’s pretty cool going back to my heritage, my culture. It’s also cool that I’m able to represent my country in a sport that many Filipinos are not known for.” This is true. In the National Hockey League (NHL), there are only four players that are Filipino playing in the professionals.
He began playing hockey in the third grade. He also played baseball and basketball, but decided to quit them to focus on hockey
“I don’t know, something about [baseball and basketball] didn’t really click, so I wanted to try something more fast paced, ” said Bautista. Hockey also challenged him more than the other sports.
Bautista shared that in hockey “you have to play on the fly, you have to be ready for anything.” He also said, “There’s a lot of adjusting based on who you play or the way the other players are playing.”
Bautista is proud to play for the National Philippines hockey team.
At the end of the year in December, Bautista will travel to the Philippines to meet his new teammates and practice with them. Then he will spend a week and a half in Hong Kong to play in a tournament and hopefully bring the Philippines a championship.
