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    Here are the new Gilas Youth faces without Kai Sotto, AJ Edu

    Younger generation Duremdes, Laure, Gomez de Liaño look to build chemistry for undersized Gilas Youth
    Jul 24, 2020

    AFTER flaunting possibly the tallest youth team in history, Gilas Pilipinas Youth now braces for a future without Kai Sotto and AJ Edu.

    Coach Sandy Arespacochaga told Coaches Unfiltered of the problem he currently faces as the head of the youth team as he suddenly finds himself with a slightly lower ceiling.

    "If we’re going to compete internationally, just looking at the talent that we have, we have talented players. But the seven-footers, sila Kai and that generation, wala na eh," he said.

    Sotto, who just turned 18 and is bound for the NBA G League, together with his contemporaries like AJ Edu, Carl Tamayo, Geo Chiu, and Raven Cortez, have all graduated from the age-group competitions.


    That crew was pivotal in Gilas Youth's campaigns in the past two years where it finished fourth in the 2018 Fiba Under-18 Asian Championship in Nonthaburi and its qualification to the 2019 Fiba Under-19 World Cup in Heraklion, Greece.

    Among those remaining in the youth team pool are Kenji Duremdes, son of former PBA MVP and current MPBL commissioner Kenneth, Echo Laure, son of 13-year PBA veteran Eddie, and Jordi Gomez de Liaño, who's the younger brother of University of the Philippines stalwarts Juan and Javi.

    With that talent at hand, Arespacochaga emphasized more of the importance of cohesiveness if the Philippines wants to remain in contention in Fiba Asia and possibly, against the world.

    "Wala na tayong malalaki, so I think we should come up with a team na hindi lang basta collection ng talented players. We have to come up with a team that have been practicing for a long time and have been practicing together to come up with a really strong team in order for us to compete internationally," the longtime Ateneo deputy said.

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      The search for promising young Filipino talents, however, isn't stopping and Arespacochaga pointed out the importance of talent identification for the youth team and, in the long run, with the Gilas Pilipinas program as a whole.

      "I think that’s the challenge given to us in our situation with the youth program. Of course, with the continued help pa rin, we’ve got to expand the talent identification of these young players throughout the country and internationally."

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