The University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors did not waste time finding a new head coach to replace Junthy Valenzuela as they named former San Beda Red Cubs mentor Britt Reroma to the position yesterday.
The move was made official yesterday morning with Reroma, a one-time coach of the school’s juniors team, being introduced to the rest of the team by the school’s athletic director Fr. Adriano Ocariza, SVD, right before their practice session.
Reroma is a proven name in the country’s coaching circles, recently coming off a stint in Indonesia, where he manned the Asean Basketball League (ABL) expansion team Laskar Dreya South Sumatra and the country’s under-18 national team.
He previously handled NCAA juniors powerhouse San Beda Red Cubs and led them to numerous titles before stepping down from the position in 2013. Afterwards, he coached the USC Baby Warriors in the Cesafi juniors competition.
Now he finds himself back in his hometown with huge shoes to fill after the departure of Valenzuela, who begged off the job owing to business matters that needed his undivided attention.
“I really have huge shoes to fill. This is a team that made it the finals last year and came within a win away from winning it all,” Reroma said shortly after he ended his first practice session with the squad. “First on the list is to really maximize the talent that we have here. I’m really nervous and excited at the opportunity that was given to me.”
Last year, USC pushed Cesafi champions Southwestern University to five games in the finals series but fell short of the grand prize.
Reroma also gave a lot of credit to Valenzuela and the way he improved the team’s defense. He added that he will not be tweaking that aspect of the squad’s game but instead will focus on putting an efficient offensive system in place, one that will revolve around the core pieces that they have led by prolific import Shooster Olago.
USC athletic director Fr. Adriano Ocariza, SVD, confirmed the move and said that Reroma had long been considered for the position and that picking him was an easy choice to make.
“For us, it was all about continuity. He has been with the juniors program for so long and we wanted to have that bridge between the two programs. He can really help us a lot in improving the team as well as our recruitment process,” Ocariza added.