IT hasn’t been common practice for champion teams to have routinary coaching changes coming off title wins and successful campaigns.
National University’s resurgent women’s volleyball program, however, made it quite the norm over the last decade.
In eight UAAP seasons alone, the Lady Bulldogs had five head coaches take charge with an average of 1.28 years at the helm per tactician.
Not to mention, National U’s three title runs in Seasons 84, 86 and 87 were led by three different coaches in Karl Dimaculangan, Norman Miguel and Sherwin Meneses.
But what’s with the Lady Bulldogs and what seems to be a never-ending game of musical chairs?
For its newest head coach in Regine Diego, who hopes to be ‘part of this team for longer,’ the school’s coaching switch-ups boil down to their pursuit of elevating existing standards and finding a better fit for the role year after year.
READ: Regine Diego replaces Sherwin Meneses as NU Lady Bulldogs coach
“I think it's the standard. These girls demand more time, more things from a coach and sometimes it's hard to achieve that standard," Diego said.
“We’re just looking for the perfect match for the team. Ganun naman siya.”
Even Diego herself knows only time will tell if she’s still a match for National U after previously handling the juniors program years ago.
But at the very least, she’ll try to continue what her most recent predecessors have done for Jhocson.
“Even for me, we don't know if I'm still match for this team. Ganun talaga siya eh,” Diego admitted.
“It's been my home since 2017 and it's nice to be back to that team again. Hopefully we get to defend the title. It's about preparing hard and doing our best.
“Pero just because you went out of NU, doesn't mean you're not good. It's just there's like a perfect match lang talaga na pasok sa system din.”
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