AFTER years of toiling on the sidelines as an assistant coach for the University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers, Bong Pineda finally gets his long-awaited shot at handling a juniors team after he was named as the new head coach of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Baby Jaguars.
The development was confirmed by Pineda yesterday in an exclusive interview with Cebu Daily News.
According to Pineda, who after resigning from the UV camp briefly had a gig as assistant coach for the Café France Bakers under head coach Egay Macaraya in the PBA D-League, he was recruited by his relative, USJ-R head coach Jun Noel and the school’s vice president for student welfare, Fr. Glynn Ortega to take the reins of Baby Jaguars who has suffered through tough times after making the finals of the Cesafi juniors tournament in 2009.
Pineda said the first order of business would be to find good recruits for next season, a task that he said he’s getting the full support of Ortega, Noel, assistant coaches Edito Salacut and Marlon Piodo and team manager and sports patron, Raffy Senining.