There never is a perfect time to say goodbye.
I've seen athletes and coaches come and go over my lifetime of sports fandom. Some leave at the top of their games like Michael Jordan after winning his second three-peat (albeit, returning a lesser player two years later), while some get forced out due to injuries, personal issues, declining performance and leave the game as a shell of their former selves, staying mostly for the money, or in a desperate (and oftentimes in a painful and futile) attempt trying to recapture the glory of yesteryears, one last time. Some ride off to parades and celebrations, while some walk off in the darkness of obscurity. Coaches usually get fired when they are no longer winning. A lucky few get to coach until they don't want to coach anymore, or are too old to do so. But people around them rarely ever know why they decide to step away from the game and call it a career. I never really planned on how long I would coach; I never really looked that far when I started just after graduation in 2001 at the age of 22.
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| UST Playing Days |
When I was first offered the job to coach for the University Of Santo Tomas Women's Tennis Team, which was just being formed as the event would become a regular event in the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) in 2001, I never gave it a second thought and accepted right away. There was a long tradition of playing and coaching for the Tigers (Glowing Goldies) in my family as. My maternal grandfather Conrado 'Dadong' Serrano played baseball as a catcher and Team Captain of the Glowing Goldies in the late 40's-early 50's. My sister played for the seniors volleyball team in the 90s winning several titles under my dad, August, was a multi-titled coach of the womens volleyball team from 1981-2008.
The Coaching Genes
From the Santamaria side of me, my grandfather Tomas Santamaria coached the Bicol Regional volleyball squads in the 1950's, and passed on his coaching experiences to my uncle, Tomas Santamaria Jr. or 'Sarge' as known in volleyball circles in the country, who coached my dad that time in the mens national squad as well as the womens team and eventually migrated to Australia, recruited to coach at the Victorian Institute of Sports, Australian Junior Volleyball team, and had a decorated career with the volleyball world governing body FIVB, as head of coaching and officiating in the Asia Pacific region before retiring a few years ago. My dad coached the NCAA winning squad of De La Salle Mens volleyball in the 1970's, the Philippine Womens national team that won gold in the 1985 Southeast Asian Games, and UST Womens Volleyball team from 1981-2008.
From my Serrano/Mondoñedo side were more of teachers, as my great grandfather Mariano Mondoñedo was the Dean of Animal Husbandry in UP Los Baños in the 1920s, and a multitude of aunts and uncles and cousins in the academe. I was able to live up to the family genes, as I was also a faculty member and admin at the UST College Of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS) Sports Science Department (Sps) serving as faculty and as Internship Coordinator from 2004-2009.
Early transition from athlete to coach
I felt I owed my school a UAAP title, or two, having come short (repeatedly) over the course of my collegiate playing career. If you asked anyone at that time, I was the most dedicated and invested person there could ever be in trying to lead my team to the title. I was always a sports junkie and I believed that there was a lot at stake and expectation on my part to deliver. I declined aggressive offers from two other competing schools to attend and play, the hardest of which was saying 'no' to my juniors coach, the late great Jacinto 'Butch' Bacani to join the stacked UP Mens Tennis Team together with my closest friends from tennis in 1997. Though I knew I would be part of a much stronger team, I chose to stay in UST as it was my HS Alma Mater, as well as a sense of debt for supporting me in my battle with cancer. We placed 3rd in my freshman year and runner-up in my last three seasons as Team Captain (from my sophomore year) and De Facto coach soon thereafter. So becoming a coach seemed the natural next step for me. I was already about two summers and most weekends into my coaching career back then, working for the summer camps of my former coaches, and eventually teaching on my free time during the school year. I was also in the process of going corporate after my graduation, having reached the final stages of applications and interviews with two of the biggest multinational companies in the country. But here I was, presented with an opportunity to do what I enjoyed doing at that time, and on a mission for an unfulfilled promise to deliver a tennis title to UST, this time as a coach.
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| First (and second) UAAP Title Season 64 |
It was a seamless transition for me, mainly because I enjoyed what I was doing, developing a passion for it, and had good mentors in my former coaches as a junior. Even as a player, I was already curious and researched any reading material I could find with coaches who were consistent 'winners', even in other sports. Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, and Mike Krzyzewski just to name a few. I bought books that they authored about their teams and their winning ways. Sacred Hoops by Jackson and Leading With A Heart by Coach K influenced a lot of my philosophies in coaching. My coaching philosophy was greatly influenced by coaches who's teams I grew up watching. Coach K of Duke University Basketball, Phil Jacksons Chicago Bulls, Bobby Cox of the Atlanta Braves, Louis Van Gaal of Ajax and of course, Robert Jaworski's 'Never Say Die' Ginebra teams in the 80s-90s. I wanted to know their secrets to success, emulate their ability to win on a consistent basis, and become the recognised top coaches at the college and professional level.
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| Season 71 UST Mens and Womens Team |
I was motivated to win, mostly due to the heartbreaks during my collegiate career. In my senior year, we finished the eliminations as the #1 team, armed with a twice-to-beat advantage against Ateneo, but due to a lower back injury the week before the finals, we lost two extremely close ties to again come up short of the title. I believe if we had won that title in my senior year, I would have said goodbye to the offer to coach, having fulfilled my promise and gone the corporate route after graduation. The failure to deliver a title compelled me to stay and try to win one as a coach. In the middle of that season, with the players on the mens team having a falling out with the coach, the school decided to hand me the reins on the mens squad as well. It was poetic justice as my former teammates, with me at the helm got our sweet revenge over the same Ateneo squad, while the Women's team swept the competition to give UST the first "Golden Double" in UAAP Season 64.
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| Back to Back Mens Titles Season 65 |
The following season, I was handed the job to handle both teams permanently. My former teammates had played out their eligibility in the mens squad, so we had to recruit for a new breed of Tigers. With the proper network and connections from my former teammates from Visayas and Mindanao, we were able to get talented, but less heralded players from all over the Philippines. Despite winning titles consistently, and being runner-up at worst in the next decade, I felt this sense of being just in the right place at the right time. Being a product of the long tradition of winning that was the UST sports program. This just drove me to keep winning even more, focusing on preparation, providing good scouting reports for my players, fostering a team-first attitude, and sacrificing personal gains setting aside their egos for team success.
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| Capping off my UST coaching career with a 12th UAAP Title in Season 73 |
I finished my 10-year coaching career in España winning 7 mens titles and 5 womens titles from Season 64-73. In the 10 finals series in the mens division, we developed a fierce rivalry with De La Salle University coached by a close friend in Roland Kraut 9 times, only missing our annual date in the finals in 2006 when the whole school was suspended from the league. In the womens division, UST and DLSU had 5 titles each in that span, and only missed facing each other 2x with the suspension of DLSU in 2006, and UST failing to reach the final in 2004.
We had the most memorable battles during those times, with De La Salle parading junior and national standouts like PJ Tierro, Yannick Guba, Pop Sabandon(+), Nico Riego De Dios, Irwin De Guzman, Nico Faller in the mens side, and Regina Santiago, Michelle Panis, Berry Sepulveda, Martina Guba in the womens side. The Tigers meanwhile had the likes of Pius Ocampo, Maclean Barraquias, Art Calingasan, Raymond Villarete, Miguel Narvaez, Jordan Cimafranca and RK Barte for the men, and Charise Godoy, Ziarla Battad, Melody Barraquias, Julie Cadiente (+), and Nikki Manalo for the womens side from 2001-2011.
We exchanged titles and it provided a healthy competition in our sport that kept us from relaxing at any point, always trying to find ways to get better, because the other team is surely trying their best to win the title the following season. I firmly believe that these experiences in my first 10 years played a big part on my drive and determination to always be fully prepared as we always had the slight disadvantage with the quality of top players in most of the seasons that we played. We relied on teamwork, cohesiveness, and always having that 'chip' on our shoulders whenever we played.
Click on the link to continue with the second part of my UAAP Coaching Journey
http://imcoachk.blogspot.com/2021/09/my-uaap-tennis-coaching-journey-part-2.html
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