USC Warriors Head Coach Britt Carlo Reroma is carried by his team after winning the Cesafi men’s hoop crown last October.
Reigning Cesafi champions replace Britt Reroma with assistant coach Bong Abad
A little over a month after giving the University of San Carlos Warriors their first title in 54 years, the man who led them there, Britt Reroma, will no longer be manning the team for the foreseeable future.
This stunning development came to be after Reroma left the team shortly after their title conquest in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) to coach the Sarawak Eagles in the Malaysia Agung Cup tournament in Bintulu.
However, he underestimated his stay there and came back just recently, forcing school management to find a replacement as the Warriors are set to battle the nation’s best collegiate basketball squads in the Elite Eight of the 2015 Philippine Collegiate Champions League next week.
USC athletic director Fr. Adriano Ocariza, SVD, shared to Cebu Daily News in an exclusive interview that he has tapped assistant coach Bong Abad to now be the interim head coach with Teroy Albarillo backing him up.
“Initially, I was under the impression that Coach Britt (Reroma) would be gone for just a week or so but I eventually learned that would not be the case. When I found out that he wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon, I was in panic. I had to make a decision to save the team,” said Ocariza, who also bared that both Abad and Albarillo were contemplating resigning from the squad because there was no proper delegation of official duties before Reroma left.
“So I had to talk to the school alumni to negotiate with both Bong (Abad) and Teroy (Albarillo) and fortunately, we convinced them to stay not just for the PCCL but also for the PRISAA meet. Bong will be the head coach until March 31,” added Ocariza.
With just days before the Elite Eight, the Warriors have been going full blast with their preparations and welcomed back to their roster, Congolese Espoir Toyambi, and Lucky Ecarma who will be replacing the injured Ian Bensig.
Team manager Joboy Tuason reported that the team has transitioned well to their new head coach, but not after weeks of uncertainty.
“They’re doing okay. Of course the first couple of weeks after the championship were a bit weird for everybody with all the sudden uncertainties but it’s been three weeks already since Coach Bong took over and they’ve adjusted pretty well.”
It was an assessment echoed by team skipper Nico Magat, who told CDN that the team was basically just using the same system so nothing much has changed with regards to the team’s dynamics.
Though the loss of Reroma is a big blow to USC, Abad is no slouch having played one season in the PBA, suiting up for San Miguel in 1993. He averaged four points over six games with a career-high of 10 after getting picked in the second round.
After the PBA, The Barili-native reverted to amateur status and played for Casino Rubbing Alcohol in the defunct Philippine Basketball League. He has since used his basketball talents to coach school and commercial teams in Cebu and Mindanao, once leading the Misamis Oriental Meteors in the also-disbanded Mindanao-Visayas Basketball Association.
As for Reroma, he said that he respected the school’s decision.
“I am always a good soldier. Whatever the decision of the school I will just follow and obey.”
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