By Ram Christian Agustin and Paul David Gelario
All eight teams of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines vowed to fight tooth and nail in the coming 81st season.
“We know the task ahead of us,” Adamson Soaring Falcons’ head coach Don Allado said at a recent press conference Monday at the Mall of Asia Arena drumbeating the new season.
“As long as we stay healthy, we will have a good chance of winning some games. Our overall goal is to win a championship,” Allado added.
“I hope I don’t preempt the other coaches. Sorry if I do. We’re going to worry about ourselves and fight like hell to get there,” said Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles’ head coach Tab Baldwin, whose primary goal this season is not to defend the championship, but how to achieve chemistry.
“We are not necessarily defending the championship,” Baldwin said “Our confidence is how we’re really going to blend.”
When asked regarding the Blue Eagles’ long-term goals, Baldwin assured that his main focus was to approach the UAAP season one game at a time.
“There’s no guarantees, we have to prove ourselves game by game,” he said.
Most teams have a high ceiling of expectations regarding the defending champions.
“Everyone has a fair chance, but the rest, of course is Ateneo,” Far Eastern University Head coach Olsen Racela said. “With the way they played in the offseason, I think I’d be surprised if they lose a game in the elimination.”
National University coach Jamike Jarin drew laughter from the media after saying that the seating alignment of the coaches at the press conference indicated the weak and the strong teams.
“On my right these are the final four,” he said. “On my left, including me we’re trying to get to my right.”
The UAAP opens on Sept. 9 with the Blue Eagles taking on the Soaring Falcons at the Mall of Asia Arena. “‹
