WHILE other UAAP schools are dealing with graduations, departures, and everything in between, Far Eastern University coach Sean Chambers said that he’s minding a completely different matter: the transition of players from high school to the seniors level.
“That’s what I’m trying to learn now,” he told Spin.ph. “All I know is we have these players inside our campus, so they’re our players.”
Chambers admittedly finds it amusing how there’s some sort of a free agency for the players once they graduate from high school, with other schools raring to go on a recruitment war for certain players as they prepare to make the leap to the collegiate level.
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For his part, the former PBA Best Import has made it a point to be present on the sidelines as much as possible during the FEU-Diliman Baby Tamaraws’ campaign – one that saw its end on Sunday in a Final Four defeat to University of Santo Tomas.
But one thing going in Morayta is the wealth of talent from the juniors team of coach Denok Miranda, one that Chambers is elated to see as the FEU program looks to continue the positive gains it had after this rebuild.
“You can see a lot of promise from these kids, and some of them, I told them personally how I envision them to play once they join us in the seniors team,” he said of this Baby Tamaraws team led by Cabs Cabonilas and Marc Burgos.
Chambers, however, finds himself in a difficult position, especially that only Royce Alforque has graduated from the Tamaraws in their Season 87 campaign.
Kirby Mongcopa is a strong contender to snag that spot, while three more Baby Tamaraws in Liam Salangsang, Damme De Guzman, and Hans Castillejos are graduating and are ready to make the jump in the seniors level.
“That’s a good problem, I guess,” Chambers said. “At the end of the day, we just want to establish that continuity for our players, from the youngest level to U16 to high school up to college.”
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