The academy takes its name from a schedule. In its earliest days, a small group of young players in Abu Dhabi could only gather on Monday and Wednesday nights, and so those two evenings gave the program both its rhythm and, eventually, its identity.
Jimbo Oliva, founder and head coach of MOWEN Basketball Academy, built the program out of that modest weekly routine, and this July he watched it produce two championship titles at once. His teams captured both the 12U and 17U divisions of the NYBL International Youth Basketball Championship 2026, held in Cainta, Rizal from July 15 to 19.
The idea for the academy came from Oliva’s years coaching for a major international sports company in the UAE, where he worked with athletes of many nationalities and began to notice how many talented Filipino children in the country lacked a comparable platform. He became convinced they had the ability to excel and needed only the right program, guidance, and exposure to prove it.
That conviction turned personal through his eldest son, who arrived in the UAE in 2016 at eight years old and became the founder’s motivation for starting the academy. “He became my greatest inspiration for starting MOWEN Basketball Academy,” the coach said. Watching his son develop through the game pushed him to build a place where other young athletes could do the same. His son now works as an assistant coach at MOWEN.
Winning both divisions was, for the coach, a validation of years of effort. He described the pride of seeing players from Abu Dhabi compete with and defeat strong teams from the Philippines, and the satisfaction of watching sacrifices and long training hours finally pay off. The confidence on his players’ faces, he said, made every earlier challenge worthwhile.
Getting there was not simple. Preparation rested on consistent training, heavy repetition, and discipline, along with a message the coach repeated often: being based in the UAE should never limit what a player can achieve. The Philippine game proved more physical than what his athletes were used to, forcing quick adjustments on the court. Off it, the demands were just as real. Some players traveled without their parents, so the coaching staff also took on the job of looking after them, and with five teams competing across different age categories, managing the full delegation while giving each player attention became its own test.
The academy’s values, according to the coach, are taught through consistency rather than speeches. “We believe values are taught through consistency, not just words,” Oliva said. Players are held accountable for punctuality, discipline, respect, and effort in every session, and are encouraged to keep their faith, stay humble, and place the team ahead of themselves.
Representing the Filipino community abroad while competing in the Philippines was, in the coach’s words, a genuine honor, though he was candid that the experience also exposed how much the program still has to learn and improve. It showed his players, too, that opportunities open up through hard work, proper training, and the right exposure.
The tournament produced plenty of memorable moments for the coach, including coaches and representatives from well-known schools approaching him to recruit some of his players. But the one that stayed with him happened before the competition even started. Rather than mark the academy’s 10th anniversary with a party, the group visited an orphanage in Rizal for an outreach program, spending time with the children, sharing meals, and listening to their stories. They had gone expecting to give, but left feeling they had received something greater. “We went there thinking we would be the ones giving back, but we left realizing they had given us something far greater,” the coach said, calling it an experience that means more to him than any championship the academy has won.
As for what he hopes young athletes take from the story, Oliva keeps it plain: work hard, stay disciplined, and be consistent, but above all be kind. “It’s far better to be remembered for your character than simply for being a great basketball player,” he said. Be coachable at home before you are coachable in the gym, he tells his players, because respect and humility start with family. And never set aside your studies, he adds, because basketball can open doors, but education keeps opening them.
