When National University (NU) was on the brink of collapse, Hans Sy saw potential where others saw a lost cause.
His solution was simple but bold — use sports as the foundation for rebuilding both the school’s reputation and community spirit.
“We couldn’t just say the school is number one,” Sy said in an interview on Bilyonaryo News Channel’s Beyond the Game program. “We had nothing to prove yet. So I told our marketing team, let’s focus on sports.”
That decision marked the start of NU’s remarkable turnaround.
Within six years of Sy’s leadership, the men’s basketball team captured its first UAAP title in six decades. Success soon followed in women’s volleyball and cheerdance — proof that the university’s faith in sports as a unifying force was well placed.
“When we took over, a lot of things had to be fixed,” he said. “Sports is something people look up to. During that time, who was the most popular team? The Azkals. Who knew football here before that? But when they came, everybody focused on the sport. So I felt sports was a good way to introduce NU again.”
Beyond the trophies, Sy instilled a culture of discipline and humility among athletes and students alike.
“When I came in, I told them to stay focused,” he said. “Then I noticed it wasn’t enough, so I put another line: stay hungry – hungry to win. And when we started winning, I wrote a third line: stay humble.”
Those three values — focused, hungry, humble — have since defined NU’s athletic and academic identity. The school now has more than 85,000 students, a sharp rise from just over a thousand when the Sy family took over.
“When we took over, there were a little more than 1,000 students only,” he said. “How can you choose athletes with that population? Right now, I think we have 85,000 students.”
For Sy, the transformation was never just about sports, but about giving young people a platform to grow.
“It would have been easier for him to just donate money,” he said of his father. “But he really wanted to teach people how to fish because that’s a long-term view. That’s what we’re doing with NU – looking long-term, doing long-term.” (AC)
