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WOMAN ON TOP
Story and pictures by Patricia Bermudez-Hizon
(November 24, 2008)
 Cassandra
Tioseco. The 2003 UAAP Rookie of the Year. The UAAP
MVP in 2006 and 2007. Vital cog of the Ateneo Lady Eagles’
historical first two championships. A South East Asian
Games medallist. RP Team veteran. And she churned up
a double-double performance in her WPBL debut with Nutri-C.
She’s the man! (No pun intended)
Cassie is the most dominant player in
the Women’s PBL games, being a six-footer who’s
strong, agile, and really smart on the hard court. She’s
almost 22 years old, a fresh graduate, already working
for a highly respected retail company tending to the
spending needs of elite clientele (yes, shopping-related).
She’s blessed with a supportive family, surrounded
by people that believe in her, and to top it all off,
she’s a looker! She’s on top of her game!
It all started with a man named Jim Tioseco,
a member of the 1975 Ateneo High School Championship
squad, a True Blue Eagle, a bona fide basketball fanatic.
He wanted a son and envisioned teaching him how to play
ball in the backyard, and passing the basketball torch
to him. But, as fate would have it, him and wife Alice
had four girls Cassie, Crissy, Clarry and Cammy (note
the double letters). When life throws you lemons, you
make lemonade! So Jim influenced all four daughters
to be sporty and athletic, and molded his eldest to
be an outstanding basketball player. Perhaps one of
the finest female ballers this country has ever seen.
 The
Tioseco family spent many years living in Vancouver,
Canada but moved back to Manila in 1996. By then, 10-year
old Cassie who’s been getting relentless training
from her dad, joined an all-boys basketball tournament
in the village. The five foot three-inch tall girl,
roughed it up and showed she had game. By the time she
entered Assumption High School, she was all too eager
to join the basketball intramurals and got her ticket
to join the varsity team by her sophomore year.
As soon as she entered the Ateneo in 2003,
she made an immediate impact by helping the Lady Eagles
get to the Finals for the first time. Yes, this is her
famed Rookie of the Year moment. They again were runners
up in 2004, but beat out Adamson the year after for
their first ever UAAP Women’s Senior Basketball
Championship. She became the Team Captain in 2006 and
got her first MVP nod despite the team finishing in
3rd place. By her last year, as a super senior, she
was again Team Captain, they won the crown against the
University of the Philippines, and hands down won the
Most Valuable Player award for the second time. That
year, she also graduated from AdMU with a degree in
Interdisciplinary Studies, as a dean’s lister.
 Though
she ended on such a high note, Cassie had her share
low points. She’s always been known to keep her
cool, but she got involved in a squabble on the court
in her rookie year during one of the inter-collegiate
games they attended in the province. The opponent gave
her an elbow and Cassie responded by grabbing her. A
double foul ensued. She felt really bad and sobbed to
her parents over the phone. She went through another
rough point in her 2nd year when negative criticisms
hounded her and flooded popular internet forums. “I
was young so it affected my game and my character”,
recalled Cassie. She beat those episodes and learned
to handle the pressures and challenges. It was all part
of the learning process. With all the trials she trounced,
her last year couldn’t have been a sweeter ending.
“That fact that I was captain, I had to deal with
issues bringing 8 rookies and the veterans together.
It was a roller coaster year. But we overcame that and
came together as a team and won the title”.
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Another
chapter has revealed itself to Cassie with the resurgence
of the WPBL. She now has her eyes set on a championship
as she reunites with some of her former teammates to
form the indefatigable Nutri-C squad coached by the
remarkable Heidi Ong.
Apart
from the crown here, she dreams of getting a SEA Games
gold medal. Donning the national colors for some years
already, Cassie has transitioned to being the go to
person in college to learning to find her spot in the
field of superstars in the RP squad.
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