THERE’S that familiar squeak of rubber shoes on wood. The thump of balls on the same hardcourt. And there’s the voices. Of players encouraging one another. Of coaches barking commands.
It’s practice of the Ateneo Blue Eagles who are trying to compress in the space of about 50 days what should have been the entire summer in preparation for the upcoming University Athletic Association of the Philippines Men’s Basketball Tournament.
However, the similarities end up to a certain point. It is different. Some of the old familiar faces are gone. Banished if not suspended. There are new coaches as well. RJ Jazul and Kerby Raymundo are now there.
‘Time to start my coaching career,’ quipped RJ who recently called it a day on his 15-year Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) career.
Like everyone, it’s about endings and beginnings.
When Louie Alas was brought into the Ateneo fold three years ago, there was no explicit reason but he as well as many others surmised that they were getting him so they could lure his son, Kieffer, to Loyola Heights.
After Letran, the elder Alas told himself that was his last stop as head coach for a college team. Serving as an assistant or a consultant is fine. But not becoming the head coach. In fact, his family was against it. They know the toll it took on him in Letran. So, he was fine joining the Ateneo coach staff as an assistant.
A prayerful and deeply religious man, he asked God for what the reason was. The answer came three years later as a jarring reminder that all things are revealed in His time.
In the aftermath of the Dipaculao tragedy, he too was prepared to walk away.
One of the Ateneo priests said something that struck a chord in him and made him rethink his position, ‘How can you leave the kids at this difficult time?’
‘I was prepared to walk away,’ Coach Louie related. ‘But the team just lost their head coach, two players and others. I cannot abandon these kids.’
At the same time, a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) school came calling and offered him the head coach duties in addition to an attractive offer.
The question he asked God three years ago was finally answered. He declined the NCAA school’s offer.
Dipaculao claimed more than the lives of Divine Adili and Rene Baterbonia. It cost the team its multi-titled head coach, team manager and coaching staff. It also cast a huge pall over the school and a deep division among its constituents, supporters, and alumni that remain as a festering wound to this day.
As for the players, during a time when all one had to concern themselves with was school, basketball, and girls, they were all confronted by loss and a deep grief. Not to mention social media hate.
One player said that he often finds his inbox with hate mail and death threats. Come UAAP time, they will have to deal with that and more. ‘I don’t think we can wish it away. We have to learn how to deal with it and just show that we aren’t bad people.’
If past teams were formed from victory and glory, this edition of the Blue Eagles is forged from the crucible of tragedy.
Teams usually bond over a journey, even a championship. This one is the same but there are mountains to climb.
There is a huge target on their backs. Not as a favorite to win a championship, but because many feel they escaped debilitating sanctions.
The fact that no one on the current squad left says something about their resilience. That word, according to Coach Louie, should sum up this team. ‘Add commitment,’ said the coach.
Almost immediately after the tragedy, opposing teams tried to pry away some of the players. One of the most sought after was Kieffer. But he was dead set on Ateneo for some time. When three UAAP coaches came calling to transfer, he sent back a terse message in capital letters: ‘NO.’
Either he played for the blue and white or would try his luck once more in the United States.
While the Blue Eagles are dedicating the upcoming season to their fallen teammates, it will not be only the other schools, they will go up against. There is that intense public scrutiny as well as haters and trolls who insist there was foul play and that they should have sat out the season if not suspended.
But they are right here and right now. There is no running away. Only confronting their demons on and off the court.
‘No one said basketball or even a season is easy,’ summed up the coach. ‘Kaya nga, laban lang. One Big Fight!’