MANILA, Philippines — After turning his former team NLEX into a playoff contender, coach Yeng Guiao’s next job puts him in charge of building up Rain or Shine’s youth-laden core.
Guiao made his way back to his old team just three days after parting ways with the Road Warriors.
He signed a three-year contract in the presence of team owners Terry Que and Raymund Yu yesterday, signaling his second tour of duty for the franchise he first served from 2011 to 2016, and steered to the 2012 Governors Cup and the 2016 Commissioner’s Cup championships.
Guiao is now tasked to help the E-Painters’ young guns like Rey Nambatac, Anton Asistio, Mike Nieto, Gian Mamuyac, Shaun Ildefonso, Andrei Caracut and Santi Santillan develop into a playoff-ready unit after missing the post-elims stages of the last two conferences.
The seven-time champion coach will get help from veterans Gabe Norwood, Beau Belga and Jewel Ponferada, the remaining holdovers from his old ROS crew, in doing this.
Guiao’s re-entry created a shakeup in the ROS think tank with erstwhile head of basketball operations Caloy Garcia set to serve as first assistant and former head coach Chris Gavina sliding to second assistant.
“Yeng is happy to be back and we’re happier to have him back,” said Yu after a whirlwind negotiation with Guiao over the weekend.