CHARLES Tiu wants nothing but to continue what his predecessor coach TY Tang started in St. Benilde.
Charles Tiu as St. Benilde coach
"It's a big challenge cause we're losing some key guys and we haven't trained for a year and a half, but I just want to continue what we started with coach TY. There will be some changes for sure, but we all want is the continuity. You can say na we're in a rebuild, but all we want is for the program to do well," he told Spin.ph.
Tiu, the Mighty Sports head coach and Meralco assistant, was named as the new man at the helm for St. Benilde on Thursday as the school looks ahead to a possible start of the NCAA Season 97 come the first quarter of 2022 where the Taft-based college will serve as hosts.
Though the job came as "unexpected" for Tiu, he's just filled with gratitude for the trust given by the school's athletic director Stephen Fernandez and its representative to the NCAA Management Committee Dax Castellano.
He, however, wouldn't deny that it will be a tall task for him to steer the Blazers to their first semifinals appearance since 2002, all the more with seniors Justin Gutang and Kendrix Belgica both set to graduate.
"Losing two starters will be a big blow for us. So it's a new start and hopefully we can compete with the players that we have," said Tiu.
One of those is former NCAA Juniors MVP Will Gozum who transferred from University of the Philippines and will now hold a bigger role for the Blazers' success moving forward.

"With Will, the thing is he will get to play," said Tiu. "He's a talented kid and I just feel that he needs to mature a little bit more. And with the experience he will get in the MPBL, hopefully that will give him the chance to play kasi for sure, gigil na gigil na siyang lumaro. So it's just a matter of Will trusting the system because we see so much potential from him and we think we can help him become an even better player."
Aside from Gozum, St. Benilde will also have La Salle transferees Miggy Corteza and holdovers led by Jimboy Pasturan to count on for this upcoming season.
Still, Tiu is taking the job with much hope as he seeks to repay the faith of the Blazers' brass for giving him this new opportunity.
"I want to do well for CSB. It's been a while since they had real success, so I'm hoping that we can soon reach those goals," he said. "Hopefully, we can work together and figure things out quickly."
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