An off-season guide to to the Blue Eagles, the Lady Spikers, and the Blue Booters

The Blue Eagles, Lady Spikers, and Blue Booters are three of Ateneo’s most buzzed about teams due to their large fan bases. This University Athletic Assocation of the Philippines season, however, the three teams experienced contrasting finishes.

As another off-season looms ahead, these three teams are given the opportunity to step back and see the bigger picture and see the direction they are heading to for the upcoming season.

Predator and prey
It was a year of comebacks for the Ateneo Blue Eagles. They were hailed champions of the Nike Summer League, the University Games, and of course, the UAAP. After all their successes in 2008, the competition and the expectations will be a lot tougher next season.

“Last year, we were ranked about third or fourth overall. This year, I’m sure expectations have gone up because we just won the [UAAP] championship,” says Team Manager Paolo Trillo (AB Comm ‘99).

Ateneo proved to be one of the best collegiate basketball teams in the country as it nailed down then-defending champs and archrivals De La Salle Green Archers in the UAAP.

With Rabeh Al-Hussaini (IV AB IS), Chris Tiu (V BSM AMF), and Nonoy Baclao (III AB IS) leading the team, Ateneo ended the season with a 16-1 record en route to the championship.

Even with five rookies on the team for Season 71, the Hail Mary Squad was able to step up to more experienced opponents. However, the next season will be harder since three veterans are already leaving the team.

“Some of our players will have to take on new roles since we’re losing Chris Tiu, Yuri Escueta (MBA) and Jobe Nkemakolam (IV AB IS) – three experienced players. [The younger players will] have to accept these roles and play them out as best they can,” says Trillo.

Trillo says they have six new recruits for next year. From the Ateneo High School Eaglets, they will be getting Jayvee Dumrique, the Ateneo Blue Eaglets Team Captain and UAAP 71 Finals Most Valuable Player; Juami Tiongson, Co-captain and UAAP 71 Mythical Five member; and Ivan Enriquez.

The Eagles will also have Chris De Chavez from Benedictine International School. John Paul Eram and Paul John Sharon, college freshmen in Ateneo de Cagayan, will be transferring to Manila next school year but will have to serve a one-year residency to be eligible for play.

Just like what the Eagles have been doing the past couple of years, they will be joining off-season tournaments and training abroad to gear up for the competition. They will kick off this summer by playing in the Flying V Fil-Oil Tournament and the Nike Summer League, where they are currently the defending champions.

Mid-way through the two tourneys, the Team A players will fly to Las Vegas, Nevada to participate in the Abunazzar Impact Basketball Camp. They will also have a stopover in Vancouver, Canada to play exhibition or pickup games against division one schools such as Simon Fraser University.

However, Trillo says he does not want to put pressure on the team by ranking it for the upcoming UAAP season.

“As long as we give our hundred percent, work hard every day in practice, stick together, and we have that Ateneo pride. I think we stand a good chance of defending the crown,” he says.

Narrowing the gap
The Lady Spikers entered Season 71 searching for consistency. After all, the team was composed of six rookies who were untested in the college wars.

However, the young team defied critics and stayed in the Final Four hunt for most of the way, racking up win after win, and seemed ready to take on stronger competition.

It was here when nerves got in the way. The Lady Spikers failed to close out games that mattered, questioned themselves, and eventually found themselves outside of the semifinal round.

Despite a 6-8 win-loss record in Season 71, the team has reason to be optimistic. “We are coming back with the same team,” says Team Captain Bea Pascual (III AB DS). “None of our current players are leaving us next year.”

Gretchen Ho (I BS ME) elaborates on the key losses that other teams will be facing next season.

“[Defending champion] La Salle will not have Manilla Santos and Michelle Datuin, Adamson is losing Sang Laguilles, and Far Eastern University Rachel Ann Daquis, among others.”

Taking these developments into consideration, the Lady Spikers have been on the lookout for middle blockers, as blocking spikes and kills were the major aspects on defense that they struggled in the most.

But the team knows that injecting new blood will not be enough. That is why the team is heading for Bangkok, Thailand for the second straight year from March 30 until April 13.

Pascual says that the experience there will be critical to the team’s improvement. “The high school players there [in Thailand] are already as good, or even better, than the college players here [in the Philippines].”

The team recalls the challenges of coping with the intense regimen there. “We would wake up at five in the morning, have two sets of training, one in the morning and in the afternoon. If we still have time, we usually have to do our weights in the middle of the day,” says Kara Acevedo (II BS Mgt).

Acevedo points out that the team needs to improve receiving balls. “If we can do this, we can set up our plays and return the kills back to them.”

Ho adds that the team needs to find ways to compensate for their weak areas. “Since we aren’t a very tall team, we have to improve on our leaping ability.”

It is also there in Thailand where the team gets to select one of the two guest players who will be representing them in the Shakey’s V-League tournament that will begin this April 19. Charo Soriano (MBA) has already been tapped as the team’s honorary member who will participate in the intercollegiate wars over the summer.

All that said, the summer does not mark the end of a year for the Lady Spikers; rather, it marks another start to a long year filled with ups and downs.

“What you do in training is what you bring to the game,” Acevedo says.

Bouncing back
With most veterans returning, a strong pre-season, and prized rookies at their disposal, the Blue Booters had high expectations coming into the UAAP season. But when Goalkeeper RS Mantos (III AB SoS) missed a simple back pass that rolled into his own net, few would have predicted that this would define the team’s season.

It was a season of unfortunate events and mishaps for the Ateneo Blue Booters. Several injured or ineligible players, unlucky breaks during games, and a rookie class that felt the pressure of putting on the Blue and White contributed to a disappointing fifth place finish.

“We had leadership issues, meaning we had no clear silent mentor on the field and there were miscommunications among the players on and off the field,” says Booters Assistant Coach Bob Manlulo.

But that is all in the past as the Blue Booters now have their sights set on the 72nd UAAP Football Tournament. As early as now, the Blue Booters have a game plan in place on that long road to redemption for a season that came way short of everyone’s expectations.

During the summer months, the Blue Booters will be hard at work honing their skills and growing in mastery of Head Coach Ompong Merida’s system. They will also be holding summer tryouts for freshmen and those who want to show what they have to offer the Blue and White.

But come June, this is when the real work begins for the Blue Booters. They plan to join the annual Terry Razon Cup playing against military teams, college teams, and semi-pro clubs. They also plan to resurrect the Ateneo Football Cup, a series of night games against top quality military teams such as Army, Air Force, and Navy to be held on the Ateneo Football Grounds.

“We want to use these tournaments to gain experience as a team especially for the rookies,” says Manlulo. One of the biggest unwanted surprises of the previous season was, despite the excellent performance of the rookies’ pre-UAAP; they performed subpar for most of the actual competition.

Aside from that, the team plans to participate in the Asian University Games, a tournament held in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. It is on the coaching staff’s wish list that they get to participate in a training camp somewhere in Asia.

While the Blue Booters may be losing several key players, the real concern is at the defensive end, where they are losing co-captain Alvin Perez (MBA) with no clear candidate to fill his shoes. The team hopes to rely on the recruits from the UAAP juniors and Rizal Football Association ranks to provide the needed stability to the once solid Ateneo defense.

Coach Manlulo describes next year’s UAAP field to having a similar situation to Season 71 as most schools are also rebuilding, with only defending champion UP intact. This almost even field can only help the Blue Booters’ chances for a strong comeback next season.

Looking at the preparation in store for the Blue Booters, they will be best prepared to face any challenges that come. They hope to put last season’s disappointments behind and compete in the UAAP football championship once more.

There is no rest for the weary, and for these three teams, the battle goes on, even as the bleachers are empty. The Ateneo name is at stake, and even as the tournaments are on hiatus, the mantra of “One Big Fight” continues.