Jireh and Camille Ibanes: A basketball love story
Two days before the start of the 2014 PLDT myDSL Philippine Cup, Jireh Ibanes took his wife Camille to brunch at Chocolate Kiss, the most popular restaurant inside the UP Campus.
Last year, they were newly-weds celebrating their wedding reception at the Bahay ng Alumni. A few years ago they were student-athletes going here for pancakes and small talk.
Now Jireh is a PBA player for the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters gearing for another finals appearance. Camille on the other hand is on the home stretch of here Ph.D. in microbiology. A far cry from the two students who met and fell in love inside the UP campus.
“I knew he was part of the team but I didn’t know who he was,” Camille said of her husband. “Of course! Siya star player, ako bench,” Jireh butted in. “I wish that wasn’t true but it was,” Camille replied as the two shared a laugh. One of the many laughs that day.
When they met Maria Camille Dowling was already in the UP women’s basketball team. Jireh Ibanes on the other hand was a bench warmer for the first two years of his UAAP career.
“I took a year off from the team to finish my thesis and when I returned I convinced my father to let me dorm,” Camille shared. “We live in Kamias so it’s like 10 minutes away but I told him I wanted to dorm for the experience. So I was at International Center Dorm where Ji was. My room was right beside their room.”
On one random day, Camille, a vegetarian, prepared breakfast for her teammates. Jireh saw her struggling to carry the food down so he helped. It was a harmless first encounter and both had no idea that their lives would be intertwined forever after that point.
“Actually I had a teammate who had a crush on him. She was trying to convince me to knock on his door and convince him to go out with us to go jogging and stuff,” she said. “But she was really small so she couldn’t keep up with us so I got to know him more. At times she would go biking when we jogged so we ended up talking more.”
Camille never imagined that it would be possible for her to like an athlete. “I didn’t think it was possible for me to like a basketball player because most of them couldn’t carry a conversation,” she said. “But Ji was just so different in the way he thought, in the way he loved God, the way he carried himself. I knew the moment I met him that he’s different.”
“I made sure na I’ll find someone who’s smarter and really beautiful,” Jireh replied. “Sobrang gusto ko yung smart and yung kayang mag-carry ng conversation. We could talk about anything. We spent hours just talking.”
The two spent time jogging, and playing basketball, and hanging out. The more they spent time together, the more they talked. This of course allowed them to know each other more.
“Yung games niya usually sa Adamson tapos umaga. I would drag my teammate Nestor (David) out of bed para makapunta kami sa games niya kahit na may game ako sa hapon,” Jireh admitted. “We’d go there super early tapos makikita kami ng Dean ng CHK (College of Human Kinetics). Tinatanong niya kami kung bakit kami nandoon kahit may game kami sa hapon sabi ko lang ‘Maam, support po sa women’s team.’”
With Camille leading their attack from the inside, the UP women’s basketball team made it thrice to the UAAP finals. “We got in the finals three times but we didn’t win any of them. But it was worth every heartache but at least we went to the finals,” Camille said, ending her sentence by staring at Jireh.
The PBA player took the cue. “For us, getting two wins was a struggle,” admitted Jireh. “Siya kasi she was so good. Superstar siya kaya hindi niya ako kilala. During my first two years with UP the Dowling sisters were so popular. They were everywhere. Sikat na sikat yan.”
The wife blushed as her husband made her reminisce about the timed when she ruled the basketball court. It didn’t take time for her to return the favor.
“In college, when we started dating, his game flew. Because before that he was benched, Camille said. “He actually didn’t enter through basketball. He was a freshman through the UPCAT and then he tried out for the team and they cut him so he played for the engineering team. And then when they played the College of Human Kinetics, who always won in the intramurals, they noticed he was good then they recruited him. Then he rode the bench.”
The two tested their basketball skills against each other all the time. “Sobrang galing niya, lagi siyang panalo,” Jireh said. “I always get angry because he always lets me win. But when we play, no blood, no foul,” Camille added.
After starting out as just being friends and workout buddies, Camille and Jireh eventually fell for each other and started exclusively dating. Already together, the two faced similar challenges in their post-college life. Camille, the economics graduate, was sure it was not the right path for her. Jireh, the art studies graduate, didn’t know if pursuing a professional basketball career was an option for him as his team failed to make a mark in his entire stint there.
“I graduated and then I worked but he was still with the team and then I went to the States,” the wife said. “Most of our relationship has been long distance since 2004,” the husband added.
“It was terrible. There was a point that we didn’t see each other in two years,” Camille recalled. “We even broke up and got back together but it’s really different when you grew up together, when you have the same stories. He’s so good to my family. My dad watches his games even if I’m abroad. Ji visits them and takes them out every once in a while.”
The two got married last year. Their wedding reception was held just beside Chocolate Kiss, at the Bahay ng Alumni. But Camille won’t be staying in the Philippines for long as she’s trying to finish her Ph.D in microbiology. She just extended for a couple of weeks to watch her husband play in the PBA Finals.
It must be a weird feeling for Jireh. On one side he should be excited at the opportunity of winning another championship for Rain or Shine. On the other side, he knows that as soon as the seven-game series is over, his wife will fly to the United States again.
“We’re just so used to it by now, “ Jireh said. “I go there every time I get the chance: season break or conference break. I go there for 10 days or two weeks. Nakaw ng oras.”
When they’re apart, Camille still makes it a point to be a supportive wife to the basketball player. She wakes up at 4 or 5 in the morning to watch Jireh’s games through live streaming.
“We started with phone cards,” Jireh recalled. “I kept all of the phone cards I used to call her. I had the Globe IDD, I had the SUN IDD. Sabi ko sa kanya pag naghiwalay kami, papabayad ko lahat sa kanya yun,” he joked.
Now it’s a bit easier with the technology. From afar, the wife could still be the biggest fan of his professional athlete husband.
“When I met him, I know he was going to be amazing. Even when he plays poorly and they lose, he still sits down and analyzes the game,” Camille shared. “He’s a real student of the game. I knew he was going to get there but I didn’t know people will know him. But he doesn’t let it get into his head. And I make sure of that.”
“When he’s in the States he walks my dog, he has to pick up the dog poo and everything,” Camille said. While doing her research on hook worms, she even asks Jireh to help her out. “He’s so famous here but when he comes to see me I ask him to clean the culture room.”
Right now, the couple is still trying to figure out their future. Jireh has a good career in the PBA while Camille is doing well with her research. They want to have kids in the future but not just yet.
“Because of what we’ve learned, I want them to plays sports but they want to but the priority is their studies,” Camille said. “They should look at sports as means para makapag-aral sila. Like kami, we’re both UPCAT passers and scholars,” Jireh added. “Sports will teach you a lot like discipline and how to deal with people pero you can’t go into sports without taking care of your studies at the same time. Hindi naman lahat makakapaglaro sa PBA.”
Basketball has done so many things for Jireh and Camille. For starters, it led them to each other. It also taught them life lessons that they could not have picked up anywhere else.
“We’re thankful for basketball. It did a lot of things for me. I met her, it allowed me to go to school, now my PBA career. It also gave me an opportunity to help other people,” Jireh said. The sport has indeed blessed Jireh handsomely but it only did because he worked so hard for it. Some of his teammates in UP were more talented and had bigger names but he outlasted them all in the PBA. Still, even with all the success that he has gotten in the pros, he never lets himself think that his career is more important than Camille’s.
“I think one thing that has made our relationship really work is that he lets me grow,” Camille said. “I think in this day and age, Filipinas can learn anything and be anybody. He allowed me to pursue my dreams. He didn’t ask me to stay home and just be here. He supported me even if meant spending time apart and told me we’ll make it work.”
“He believed that I could be as good in what I do as he is in basketball.”
So continues the love story that started with basketball. The sport is still important to the couple but it their relationships has evolved so much now. Centered in God, as Jireh’s dad is a pastor and Camille’s dad is a former priest, the two tread life’s path holding each other’s hand, occasionally letting go when the other needs the extra boost.
