NEW SEASON, new coaches.
Fresh from UST’s 38th UAAP general championship last season, four teams have gone a coaching revamp of sorts, following the departure of their chief tacticians for a variety of reasons.
The tennis squad lost head coach Karl Santamaria reportedly to the National University, which is expected to parade a vastly improved line-up in several disciplines in the UAAP this year. His contract with UST had expired.
Coach Ceasel de los Santos decided to left the Lady Spikers to coach in his alma mater, the Far Eastern University, while mentoring the Philippine team. The entire coaching staff of the Tiger Cubs, led by former UAAP standout Chris Cantonjos, will take over the women’s basketball team. The women’s judo team is still officially without a mentor.
Fr. Ermito de Sagon, O.P., regent of the Institute of Physical Education and Athletics (IPEA), acknowledged the reality of coaches being lured by other collegiate teams.
“As coaches, they are human, so they feel some insecurity also because their appointment is on a year-to-year basis. And if there’s a school that tries to get them, there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.
But de Sagon appealed for greater transparency from coaches opting to leave.
“Where they go after they have been with us, we don’t scrutinize. That’s their privilege. I don’t take it against them, but all they have to do is to be honest. They should not tell us many other reasons for leaving only (for us) to find out that they are going somewhere,” he said.
De Sagon said UST would not be dragged into a so-called bidding contest to land the best athletes available.
“Our primary belief is that if one player goes by the highest bidder, then it is dangerous to have them,” he said. “As an institution, we do not encourage that kind of practice. We don’t rely on promises of money. We just rely on our name. We’re playing for UST and that’s all there is.”
Now a Bulldog?
Assistant coach Gabby Remigio is back as head coach of the tennis squad in place of Santamaria. Remigio confirmed that Santamaria was indeed moving to NU.
“We can’t blame him. NU is serious in building its tennis team this year. I’ve heard they have the best graduating players this year,” he said.
Remigio was a UST player himself and mentored the tennis team years back. He had also coached the women’s lawn tennis team of the University of the Philippines for three years, from 2008 to 2011.
“It’s really a big challenge for me knowing that UST is the defending champion in the UAAP men’s lawn tennis,” he said.
Judo woes
It remains to be seen whether Jojo Arce would continue to coach the Lady Judokas, last season’s champions, after he was embroiled in a controversy involving fund-raising for the team’s training.
In an interview, Arce said the team was able to raise P8,000 that allowed the judokas to conduct training sessions outside of UST, whose facilities supposedly made them prone to injuries. They ended up training with the national team at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.
Problem was the money reportedly came from three students, then members of Team B, who also asked that they be exempted from PE classes.
“On one hand, I know I also have done wrong. But the money didn’t end up in my pocket and I did it for my players. Look at what they have become. They really improved a lot,” he said in an interview with the Varsitarian.
Volleyball
Odjie Mamon, assistant coach of the Tiger Spikers, was tapped to mentor the Lady Spikers following the departure of De los Santos, who led UST to a number of titles since he began coaching the team in 2004.
De los Santos admitted that he will be coaching FEU from now on as he graduated Commerce major in Management there back in 1999.
“I hope people like you would understand. There are reasons why this things happen,” he said as he revealed his new coaching position.
Tigresses
Cantonjos, a member of the dominant UST basketball team that collected four consecutive titles in the 90s, is now the head coach of the women’s squad. He replaced coach Julie Amos, whose contract was no longer renewed by UST.
A former PBA player, Cantonjos will be joined by coaches Allan Ascue and Juben Ledesma, his assistants with the juniors’ basketball team.
Athletics moderator Rodrigo Sambuang said the makeover was meant to further improve the team’s performance in the coming UAAP seasons.
“It’s for the sports development of UST. The replacements for the former coaches have good track records with them,” he said.
