ALLY SALAZAR: “ONCE A DARTER, ALWAYS A DARTER” He had all the qualities to be the country’s top dart player by this time, and could have been famous had he chosen the path that led Lourence “The Gunner” Ilagan to greatness, but Ally Salazar opted to choose the other road to a better life as he decided to heed the advice of his parents and his idol, the legendary Freddie Deen, to pursue first his other dream--to get a college degree and get a good job. Then back to darts. For the record, Ally’s father was already dating other ladies when his mom was born. It’s a big gap, 18 years to be exact, and by the time Ally was born, his father was already 62 years old while his mom was only 44. Ally’s mom was a former talent of LVN Pictures, the same movie studio that launched Filipino great stars to stardom, Nida Blanca, Charito Solis, Fernando Poe, Sr., Rogelio Dela Rosa and Nestor de Villa, to name a few. Salazar started to play darts when he was in Grade VI and was the youngest member of Datadart team, one of the winningest squads in Metro Manila Darts League in the ‘90s. He was also featured in “Hoy Gising,” the popular TV program of Korina Sanchez and Ted Failon during that time. There was a segment in that TV show, sponsored by Promil, featuring kids who were on top of their craft, and Ally was on top of darts as a teen in the early ‘90s. He was discovered by an ABS CBN talent scout while he was playing at Amber’s restaurant in Makati City. In 1994, Salazar would have been elevated to “rated” status at a young age of 14 for his impressive performance in a big dart event at YMCA in Baguio City but Terton Craft’s ace player Jun Indelible defeated him in a decisive match. After that heart-breaking loss, he started to weigh his options, as even a wise and deep-thinking person like Salazar couldn’t figure out exactly what his future holds at the time. No man can serve two masters or you can’t live your life in two directions, as the saying goes, and Salazar had to choose between his love of darts and his education. He decided to pursue his studies first and finished a bachelor commerce degree with major in marketing at the University of the East in Manila. He also took up a short advertising course at Vancouver School Board in Canada and then went to UP for his Public Administration course. Little did Salazar know that a pretty young girl and a schoolmate by the name of Carol Ventura who was also throwing her darts during break time at their school would be his future wife. The young lass caught Ally’s eye while she was playing dart during recess at Immaculate Concepcion Parochial School in Malabon. They are now living happily with two kids, Kathlyn and Kurt. After settling down and with a stable job to support his family, Salazar went back to playing the sport he loves most—darts--in 2010. I always love darts, and once a darter, always a darter, he said. He was a member of Neeson Philippines that won the 2012 Malaysian Open. Other members of the team were Lourence “The Gunner” Ilagan, Brunno Parungao and Jerry Salenga. He also played for Aus-Phil squad that won the “Overall and Team championship” of the 2013 Selangor Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was also included in the list of top 100 darters in the world that qualified for the grand finals in December 2013 in Hong Kong. When asked who are the top three players in the country today, Salazar picked Lourence “The Gunner” Ilagan and Christian “The Titan” Perez as the one and two punch of the sport, and then chose Andy “The Superman” Villamor as the third force. Ally is a Scorpion and celebrating his 35th birthday today, October 24. Happy birthday, Ally, and here’s wishing you all the best and more birthdays to come. (Photo shows Ally Salazar poses for a photo in front of a soft tip dartboard. Other photo shows Salazar as he flashes his winning form)
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 01:56:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015