by Milo

Ah, the beauty of youth.  So playful, optimistic and daring.  How I miss those days.

The 69th season of the UAAP has come to a close, and after 10 years, the UST Growling Tigers are your UAAP Men’s Basketball champions once more.

I applaud the superb journey of maturity that the Tigers have undergone this season.  After the first round of the season, they were barely in anyone’s radar of making it into the final four.  They also narrowly made the cut in the second round.

I tip my hat to the Tigers coach, Alfredo “Pido” Jarencio for bringing the championship dream of the Tigers to its fruition.  Whoever thought a rookie coach who constantly made jokes in his press interviews and gave Emmy-award winning facial reactions, sometimes comedic, to the camera would steer the Tigers to victory?  Have you ever seen a coach kiss the hand of his free-throw-handicapped point guard before he took two crucial charity shots?

But maybe, these comedy sketches he constantly pulled out were indicative of how he wanted UST to take this series – just have FUN!

Pido’s reaction to game one’s loss in a post-game interview?  “Wala lang. Nangyari eh. Wala na tayong magagawa doon. (Nothing. It happened. We can’t do anything about it anymore.)”

While other coaches would’ve ranted about their loss, probably blaming the young Tiger team with their mental lapse or brag about what they will do next game, Pido playfully set it aside as if nothing happened.  No grudges held, no vengeance sought.  Youth at work here.

This UST squad is a young team when it comes to championships since their last stint was 10 years ago.  They needed to mature first, and they had to suffer hardships first (i.e. the first round.)  Before they knew it, as the season progressed, they realized that their childhood dream isn’t as impossible as it seemed to be before.  They could be the chosen ones to reach the destined land.  Another youthful, coming-of-age storyline.  In kindergarten, one probably knew it as “The Train that Could” with the famous quote, “I think I can, I think I can.”  In the basketball leagues, they call it “peaking”.

Tis’ the beauty of youth.  Playful, optimistic and daring.  With a playful disposition, one doesn’t know pressure, a want to win instead of had to win with a boatload of energy to expend.  With an optimistic attitude, one does not fear losing, always looking at the brighter side of things even if one is down by a big margin.  With a daring demeanor, one will take risks and invent new ways of achieving the task at hand without any fear of disappointment.

Maybe this is what they call the youthful “hunger”.

And Pido Jarencio always exemplified this behavior.  In his professional career, he became “the Fireman”, a guy who kills burning momentum of the opposing team.  He will find a way to score that pressure-laden shot easily that will turn the tide of the game.  He will score 39 on you if need be.  Yes, it’s crazy, but effective.

With this basketball experience at hand, along with the teachings of his former coaches in the amateur and professional leagues, Pido Jarencio managed to translate all of these into wise words and plays for the young UST Tigers.  And in the end, the young mentor and athletes were the ones left standing in the sea of blue, gold, black and white.