Ex-Army mentor boosts Marinerang Pilipina coaching staff

MANILA, Philippines – Another champion mentor is set to join the coaching staff of Marinerang Pilipina in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference this June.

Rico de Guzman, who led Philippine Army to a couple of title finishes, has been tapped to assist Vilet Ponce-de Leon in turning the Lady Skippers into instant title contenders in the country’s most prestigious women’s club league.

De Guzman and Ponce de Leon are no stranger to each other.

The faced each other in the early days of the league with de Guzman winning two titles for the Lady Troopers while de Leon guiding Foton to a Grand Prix crown in 2015 with Lindsay Stalzer and Katie Messing as reinforcements.

De Guzman is currently assisting Edgar Barroga at Cignal, which is still clashing with reigning champion Petron in the best-of-three semifinals of the Grand Prix.

De Leon, on the other hand, took a break from the club level, but sis still helping Kungfu Reyes and Ian Fernandez in guiding University of Santo Tomas in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.

Now, they’re together and are tipped to lead the Lady Skippers to a Cinderella run.

“Coach Rico is expected to formally join Marinera right after his commitment with Cignal,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“With coach Rico and coach Vilet on board, we expect Marinera to be very competitive right from the start. Both of them are champion coaches who know what it takes to win.”

The source said the Lady Skippers are expected to be aggressive in their recruitment right after the UAAP.

In fact, Ponce-de Leon and team manager in former University of the Philippines star Jed Montero are already eyeing some players from UP, Ateneo de Manila University and University of Santo Tomas to join them.

They also found some gems in the rough following their tryouts two weeks ago.

“They already have shortlist,” the source said.

“But they don’t want to be aggressive in their recruitment because they respect the respective collegiate teams of these players. But as soon as UAAP is over, expect them to go full blast and form a very competitive team.”

So far, University of the East stalwarts Judith Abil and Seth Rodriguez have already committed as well as San Beda University spiker Cesca Racraquin.