Sta. Lucia Realtors

Team History

Before Sta. Lucia Realty

Great Taste was a charter member of the PBA back in 1975, joining eight other teams in forming the first professional basketball league in Asia .

The Coffeemakers best years were during the mid-1980s. Great Taste had Filipino-American Ricardo Brown, the 1985 Most Valuable Player, former Crispa standouts Atoy Co, Bernie Fabiosa, Philip Cezar and former Toyota Abe King.

Amateur star Allan Caidic joined the team in 1987 to form a strong nucleus under legendary mentor Baby Dalupan.

From 1985 to 1987, the Coffeemakers won three PBA titles (1985 Open, All-Filipino and 1987 All-Filipino).

Great Taste also used the franchise name Tivoli Milk or Presto Tivoli in 1988.

By 1990, Presto Tivoli, under former national team member Jimmy Mariano, won the All-Filipino Conference by defeating Purefoods in seven games with Triggerman Allan Caidic winning the prestigious Most Valuable Player award.

In 1991, Allan Caidic, scored 79 points with 17 three-pointers in a game against Añejo on November 21, 1991, it was one of the best ever individual performance in the history.

Before the 1992 season ended, Presto management announced the sale of the franchise and Sta. Lucia Realty, owned by business mogul Exy Robles and long-time team manager Buddy Encarnado, decided to buy the franchise rights in 1993.

The Realtors were once a dominant force in Philippine Amateur Basketball League (PABL), which known as the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) today.

Before jumping to pro rank, Sta. Lucia Realty had captured many titles in the PABL.

The Beginning

When the 1993 season started, Sta. Lucia Realty had let go superstar Allan Caidic, who moved to San Miguel Beer.

From the old Presto team, the Realtors got Vergel Meneses and Bong Hawkins but later traded to Alaska and Swift, respectively.

Gerry Esplana, Bong Alvarez, Ric Ric Marata, Jack Tanuan and Johnedel Cardel were the other notable players for the Realtors in their early years.

Sta. Lucia Realty selected amateur star Zandro “Jun” Limpot of De La Salle University-Manila as its top pick in the 1993 Rookie Draft.

With Limpot carrying Sta. Lucia Realty, the Realtors managed to surprise everyone after they made it to semi-finals and finished fourth place in the All-Filipino Conference thus giving Limpot the Rookie of the Year honor after the 1993 season.

The team’s head coach during its first few years was former PBA coach Nat Canson.

Limpot-Espino Tandem

Sta. Lucia Realty chose 6-foot-6 University of Santo Tomas star Dennis Espino its first round draft pick. Six-foot-3 Filipino-American Chris Jackson and veteran shooter Romy Dela Rosa later joined team to form a solid squad to complement Limpot and Espino.

Aside from capturing the 1995 Governor’s Cup third place trophy, two more third place trophies were collected by the Realtors during the 1995 All-Filipino and Commissioner’s Cups.

In 1996, Sta. Lucia Realty settled to another third place finish in the Commissioner’s Cup with Adonis Tierra as head coach.

Sta. Lucia Realty’s best year was in 1997 when it ended third in the All-Filipino and fourth in the Commissioner’s Cup and then in Governor’s Cup.

Chot Reyes became the Realtors head coach and made Jason Webb their third overall pick in the 1997 rookie draft.

But Reyes left the team in 1998 and Sta. Lucia Realty tapped Derrick Pumaren, the mentor of Limpot while playing for De La Salle U and Magnolia in the PABL.

Esplana and Jackson were later traded to Formula Shell for Ronnie Magsanoc, who tallied his 1,000 career three-point shots.

The Realtors entered the semifinals of the All-Filipino Cup, but was defeated by San Miguel Beer in a do-or-die match for the last Finals berth.

In 1999, Limpot and Espino returned for Sta. Lucia Realty after leading the Centennial Philippine Team to bronze medal in 1998 Asian Games.

Romy Dela Rosa went to the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association, but the Realtors added 1992 PBA MVP Ato Agustin.

High-flying Filipino-American Robert Parker and import Kwan Johnson joined the team in the 1999 Commissioner’s Cup.

But the immediate departure of Parker left the Realtors to a struggling performance in the season-ending Governor’s Cup.

Johnson was eventually replaced by Joe Temple during the course of the tournament.

First Championship

Before the 2000 season, Limpot was traded to the Barangay Ginebra Kings for Marlou Aquino that solidified the big man position of the team.

Then, grand slam winning head coach Norman Black was named Sta. Lucia Realty new head coach.

They also had the No. 1 pick in the draft and grabbed University of the Philippines big time scoring guard Paolo Mendoza.

The Realtors made it only to the quarterfinals of the All-Filipino Cup.

In the Commissioner’s Cup, lefty Ansu Sesay was Sta. Lucia Realty’s import.

The Realtors placed second in the eliminations and later on made it to the championship series for the first time in franchise history, but only to lose to the talented San Miguel Beermen in five games.

Sesay was named Best Import of the said tournament.

With Joe Temple as import for the Governor’s Cup, the Realtors did not make it past the quarterfinals.

Although they were not successful in 2001 All-Filipino and Commissioner’s Cup, the Realtors, led by import Damien Owens, got their second finals appearance against heavily-favored San Miguel Beer.

After both team split their series in the first four games, the Realtors won both Games 5 and 6, to capture their first-ever PBA title.

Game Six was considered the most dramatic and tightly contested.

After San Miguel Beer import Lamont Strothers tied the game at 72-all with an off-balanced runner, Chris Tan hit a 24-foot three-pointer down to three seconds remaining to give Sta. Lucia its first-ever PBA championship.

Sta. Lucia Realty won it via 75-72 win in Game 6 that wrapped the series to 4-2.

Owens was the Best Import of the Conference and Gerard Francisco was the Finals Most Valuable Player.

Post Championship Era

In 2002, Norman Black announced his resignation after failing to defend Sta. Lucia Realty’s Governor’s cup crown.

The Realtors also failed to enter in the semifinals of the first two conferences that time.

Former Tanduay mentor and Black’s chief assistant Alfrancis Chua took the head coaching job.

During the 2003 PBA rookie Draft, Sta. Lucia Realty shocked everyone by trading their fifth overall pick to Alaska for 1998 MVP Kenneth Duremdes.

With Duremdes joining Aquino and Espino, the Realtors became one of the favorites to win any of the three conferences for the 29th season.

Sta. Lucia Realty placed fourth in the All-Filipino but did not qualify for the special PBA Invitational tournament and then secured another fourth place finish in the Reinforced Conference.

Espino and Aquino, still, made it to the Mythical Team during the annual awards night.

In the 2004 PBA Fiesta Conference, with former Purefoods import Derrick Brown as reinforcement, the Realtors blew a double-digit lead to lose to eventual champion Barangay Ginebra Kings in the wildcard knockout phase of the tournament.

The Realtors were again eliminated in the wildcard phase of the 2004-05 Philippine Cup after they were swept by San Miguel.

In the 2005 Fiesta Conference, Sta. Lucia blew a twice-to-beat advantage in the wildcard phase and was eliminated by the soon departing Shell Turbo Chargers.

Former Cincinnati Bearcat Ryan Fletcher was the import for Sta. Lucia.

2005-06 Season

In the 2005 PBA Draft, Sta. Lucia used the second-overall pick to draft point guard Alex Cabagnot, who had a solid performance in the 2005-06 Fiesta Conference along with former PBL star Chester Tolomia.

The Realtors were swept by Alaska in the quarterfinals.

The Realtors finished with a 4-12 record in the classification phase of the Philippine Cup.

2006-07 Season: Kelly Williams’ arrival

Amateur rising star Kelly Williams was selected by Sta. Lucia Realty in the 2006 Rookie draft and made 6-foot-6 Mark Isip its sixth pick, while the Realtors used their 13th pick to get guard Mark Magsumbol.

In the Philippine Cup, Sta. Lucia Realty was able to pull off a surprising start in the conference due to great performances of Williams, Cabagnot, veterans Marlou Aquino, Dennis Espino and Kenneth Duremdes.

Despite a 1-2 win-loss record, Sta. Lucia Realty was able to gain a berth in a knockout game due to their superior record in both the classification and wildcard phase.

The Realtors defeated the Air21 Express 121-118 to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since the 2003 Reinforced Conference.

Sta. Lucia Realty lost 3-1 to Red Bull in the five-game series despite a Game 1 victory.

Journey to first ever Philippine Cup title

Assistant coach Boyet Fernandez replaced Alfrancis Chua as head coach in the Fiesta Conference and they paraded Rock Winston as import.

Sta. Lucia dealt Kenneth Duremdes, Alex Cabagnot and Ricky Calimag to Coca-Cola for Dennis Miranda, Manny Ramos and a 2008 second round draft pick.

Later on in the tournament, they replaced Winston for Jamaal Williams.

They went 2-6 with Williams and got booted out in the wild card phase of the tournament by San Miguel Beermen.

2007-08 Season: First All-Filipino Crown in 15 years

The Realtors had undergone a major overhaul on the roster, when Coach Boyet Fernandez retained only six players from the previous roster and went on to tap undiscovered talents on rookie free agent.

Coach Boyet decided to get young deserving players, hiring 6-foot-7 Philip Butel, Dennis Daa and Christian Coronel in the free agent pool.

Sta. Lucia Realty used its third pick to lure 6-foot-1 playmaker Ryan Reyes and second round choice Melvin Mamaclay.

The Realtors also traded Cesar Catli and Mark Isip to Coca-Cola for slasher Joseph Yeo and 2009 second round draft pick last September 10, 2007.

Adapting to the new rules that fits the physicality of the Sta. Lucia Realty’s game, the team is making progress.

They are able to blow out other teams to win and upset different highly-respected teams like Magnolia and Talk and Text.

Sta. Lucia Realty ended the elimination round of the All-Filipino Cup with eight straight wins to get one of the two outright semifinals slots – its first ever since the new rule was implemented in 2004 – along with the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants.

The Sta. Lucia Realtors fought very hard in a classic deciding Game 7 to seal the championship series to 4-3 en route to their first Philippine Cup title.

Veteran Dennis Espino, proving skeptics wrong, showed no sign of aging problems to score a finals high 29 points as the Realtors whipped the Purefoods Giants, 100-88, last March 2, 2008 at the Araneta Coliseum to claim the crown.