ERIC Altamirano is set to return to coaching via the Flying V Thunder, who will be making their debut in the PBA D-League next conference.
Altamirano will mentor the new D-League side just months after his resignation as head coach of National University. His new team will make its debut in this year’s Foundation Cup.
“I look at it as a new challenge. Coaching in the D-League is very different from the UAAP. It’s something that can also help me grow as a coach. I’ve been coaching the collegiate level for six years so it’s something new for me. Hopefully, we will get new results,” said Altamirano.
Flying V is making its first foray in commercial basketball, although the petroleum company owned by Ramon Villavicencio previously signed up to compete in the Countywide Basketball League (CWBL). The league failed to take off.
Flying V team manager Joey Guillermo said the team is still in the process of signing players, although Altamirano already has some names in mind.
“Mr. Villavicencio has been an avid supporter of basketball,” said Guillermo. “He decided to have a commercial team. We will start organizing before the start of the second conference.”
Altamirano has coached in the D-League with NU, but this will be the first time he will handle a purely commercial developmental team. He led Purefoods and Mobiline to titles in the 1997 PBA All-Filipino and the 1998 PBA Centennial Cup, respectively, as well as NU in the 2014 UAAP season.
“It’s our goal to replicate the same success we had in the PBA and in the UAAP,” Altamirano said.