Dubai: Philippines’ Under-17 basketball coach Michael Jarin has appealed to Filipinos of mixed heritage to help combat his side’s lack of height.

The Batang Gilas Pilipinas, whose average height is five foot 11 inches, lost their opening group games at the ongoing Fiba Under-17 World Championship in Dubai, 82-72 to Angola, 85-65 to Greece and 124-64 to the USA — three teams who average around six foot four to six inches tall.

While Jarin’s side more than matched their opponents in passion, speed and agility, he said they still didn’t measure up. “Especially in basketball, height will always be the biggest factor,” said Jarin. “In the Philippines, a six-foot eight inches tall player only crops up every 30 years, we can’t wait 30 years, we need to discover Filipinos all over the world that will help our programme.

“The way our boys played, I think we had a bigger heart, because competing, jumping, rebounding, running against these phenomenal athletes, we just needed a lot of heart and we never gave up.

“Filipino basketball is shining the brightest because we are competing in the world championships at junior and senior level [this year]. This has opened up a lot of things for our country, there’s a kid somewhere from America or Europe who is half Filipino or pure Filipino, I’m sure he’s watching and I’m sure we were able to inspire these young kids by playing our hearts out, and that kid might grow up like six foot six inches or six foot eight inches and would have the motivation and inspiration to play for the national team, and those are the kids we need.”

After the Philippines’ senior team lost the final of the Fiba Asia Championship 85-71 to Iran last year, the country’s President Benigno S. Aquino III, conceded: “We are not yet blessed with the height necessary to become a dominant power in the world of basketball.”

Since then, Aquino has naturalised six foot 11 inch American Andray Blatche ahead of the Fiba World Cup from August 30 to September 14. But Jarin is not keen on the idea of naturalising players at youth level.

“There are a lot of misses at youth level, and you would be taking away the slot of a Filipino, whose dream it is to play for his country,” he said. “For me personally, I’d rather see a pure Filipino play age bracket basketball.”