LA sets goal in Mongolia

It’s a top four finish that Philippine youth coach LA Tenorio has set as a goal at the FIBA U16 Asia Cup in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Aug. 31-Sept. 7 to seal a ticket to the FIBA U17 World Cup in Istanbul next year.

“Not easy,” said Tenorio in a phone interview on SEAG Live. “Australia and New Zealand should take two slots as I heard some of their U16 players are on the men’s team. I’m consulting with coach Josh (Reyes) and his advice is to beat at least two strong teams then we’re in.” In the previous 2023 edition with Reyes at the helm, the Philippines took down South Korea and Japan in clinching fourth place behind Australia, New Zealand and China.

Tenorio said winning the recent SEABA U16 Championships in San Fernando was a challenge. “We had two to three months to prepare,” he said. “We didn’t hold open tryouts because maybe, 1,000 would’ve showed up so we sent out invites to 60 boys and still about 100 came. Before that, I went to Cebu to scout the CESAFI U16 tournament and reached out to UAAP and NCAA junior coaches. I checked out players in MPBL juniors, MILCU, high school and junior high. The requirement was players had to be born in 2009 or later. Since the boys were studying, our practices were from 6 to 9 p.m. Priority is education and because of their schedules, we never had a complete practice until the morning of our first game. Choosing the final 12 was another challenge.”

Tenorio said he told the boys not to look at the score during a game and focus on playing it right. “This was the first step of a long process,” he said. “I reminded the boys that we just needed to win the right way by playing defense and if we only relied on our talent, we wouldn’t win beyond SEABA. After three games, we had a break then came back to play Indonesia. Naging kampante sila kasi feeling kayang-kaya. We won a tough game by nine. Then, we played Malaysia and in the final, we beat Indonesia by 30 in our best defensive game.”

Tenorio said on the day of the final, the players surrendered their cellphones voluntarily. “I told the boys don’t mind social media comments, that akong bahala sa kanila,” he said. “In the end, my objective was to give the boys the chance to be the best persons they can be. Our journey wouldn’t be successful without the support of Boss RSA (San Miguel Corp. Chairman/CEO Ramon S. Ang), Boss Al (Gilas project director Alfrancis Chua) for his guidance from Day 1 up to now, Gov. Delta Pineda who treated the boys like his sons, SBP, parents, schools, coaching staff and the entire team.”