Reyes believes SWU’s strength and conditioning program improves with Solon on board

WITH Pio Solon now the athletic director of Southwestern University (SWU)-PHINMA, men’s basketball head coach Mike Reyes is hoping that the school’s sports programs will start to improve.

Solon was recently installed as the athletic director of SWU-PHINMA, replacing Reyes, who is also the head coach of the SWU Cobras men’s basketball team. Reyes held the position that Solon now has for two years, replacing Ryan Aznar in 2015.

Reyes said if there’s one thing he hopes and believes Solon can improve, it is SWU-PHINMA’s strength and conditioning program.

“When I transferred to SWU from the University of San Carlos, I brought Pio with me as strength and conditioning coach. I just hope that our once good strength and conditioning training will be brought back with the coordination of our new athletic director. We hope that our physical therapy and injury management will improve,” said Reyes.

He added that he is optimistic with the changes in the school’s athletic department.

“I have not talked to Pio personally, but I hope that everything will get better,” Reyes said.

According to Reyes, the current status of SWU-PHINMA’s sports programs are doing good save for the college and high school basketball teams. But he believes this is a normal cycle that teams go through, not only in basketball.

“Our sports program is doing well. It is just that this year, our high school and college basketball (teams) are not doing well. I believe that [this] cycle can happen to any sports program. A couple years back, we were a championship caliber team. Right now we are not,” said Reyes.

Reyes’ squad, one of two playing without a foreign student-athlete, failed to make it to this year’s semifinal round.

Meanwhile, Solon said he will do his best to bring back the prestige and glory that SWU-Phinma had before in terms of athletic competition.

He said he will first focus on three sports: basketball, volleyball, and badminton.

“We want to be systematic in all three sports before we add more to our priorities,” said Solon.

With regard to Reyes’ concern, one of Solon’s plan is to form a unit primarily focused on strength and conditioning, where there will be sports doctors, staff, physical therapists, guidance counselors and dieticians ready to aide athletes in collaboration with the SWU-Phinma community.

“There are parameters we want to improve on. We aim to be more systematic. We want our athletes to work harder in the classroom and on the court.

Hopefully, with the initiatives we’re implementing, we will be able to help mold holistic athletes with a strong sense of character, grit, resilience, and persistence,” said Solon, a well-known sports science expert, and a notable strength and conditioning coach in Cebu.

“I am looking forward to seeing what we can do as SWU-PHINMA. I’m also fortunate to have taken the reigns from coach Mike Reyes. My responsibility now is to grow on what he established for us.”