New name of PH women’s basketball team unveiled

Sports

GILAS Hiraya.

That’s the new name of the Philippines’ women’s national basketball team.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) said the new name of the national squad reflects the squad’s dreams, aspirations, and growing presence on the international stage.

SBP Executive Director Erika Dy said it was the officials of Fiba who challenged the country’s governing body for basketball to give the women’s basketball team its own identity.

The country’s men’s basketball team is called Gilas Pilipinas while the women’s squad was then dubbed as Gilas Women.

Dy said the process to come up with a new name for the women’s team started around April or May last year.

A quick search on the Internet showed that Hiraya is defined as an ancient Tagalog word that means the fruit of one's hopes, dreams, aspirations, or imagination. It describes the power of the mind to conceive or form visions of things not yet real, serving as a deeper, more poetic form of the word "sana" (hopefully).

The rebrand also comes with a new logo, Dy said.

The BT Toews-coached Gilas Hiraya is in the thick of preparations as the host team in the 2027 FIBA Women's Asia Cup from July 10 to 18 next year at the SM Seaside Cebu Arena.(CCM)