Perry stays with T’ Chargers

The tug-of-war between Shell and Talk N Text for the services of coach Perry Ronquillo ended Tuesday night as the portly mentor opted to re-sign with his old team. He signed a new three-year contract worth around P13 million.

Ronquillo said he has an unfinished program with Shell and decided to stay with the team which he had steered to two championships in his first three years as head coach.

Shell team manager Bobby Villarosa said assistant coaches Joey Guanio, Jig Mendoza and Herc Callanta will have their own contracts extended in the next few days.

With their failure to sign up Ronquillo, Talk N Text team owner Manny Pangilinan reportedly sent some people to the United States to look for available coaching talents there.

"I’m happy with my new contract. It provides me stability and gives me the opportunity to harness the skills of my young players and grow old with my old players," said Ronquillo.

He refused to give details of his new contract with Shell. He also neither confirmed nor denied his talk with the Talk N Text top officials.

But a reliable source said Ronquillo is to get a monthly pay of no less than P300,000 next year. It will escalate in the next two years with Ronquillo assured of no less than a monthly take of P400,000 in year 2004.

The same source said Ronquillo got a more lucrative offer from Talk N Text but the former La Salle player gave more weight on his relationship with his players in deciding to stay with Shell.

"The final piece of the puzzle was the mutual respect I’ve had with players. Of course, I believe in the program we’ve set up for Shell, I believe we have good people that can make our dreams come true," said Ronquillo.

Ronquillo pointed out that winning the championship is not their immediate goal but "to develop a team that will be respected again by the other teams."

"Things are looking up for us but we have a long way to go. I’m not setting up a time table kung kailan kami mananalo uli ng championship dahil mapre-pressure lang kami. What we intend to do is to play to our potential, improve our skills and play as hard as we can," said Ronquillo. "By doing that, I’m sure victories will come by."

The Turbo Chargers had made a big improvement from their forgettable campaign last year. They finished fourth in the 2001 All-Filipino and jumped to third in the Governors Cup. In the 2000 season, Shell failed to make it past the eliminations in all the three conferences.

Ronquillo is confident they can perform even better next season with his team to be strengthened by players coming from the draft.

"We have two first round picks. Marami ang humihingi by trades but we’re not giving it up. We’re inclined to use it to strengthen our lineup," said Ronquillo. "Maugong ang balita maraming quality players daw ang sasali sa draft ngayon."

Shell owns the No. 4 and No. 7 picks overall in the coming draft.