Dan Palami, the team manager of the UP Fighting Maroons, was in Europe when he was named to the five-man search committee formed by UP College of Human Kinetics dean Ronni Dizer.
The task of the committee, which also includes athletic director Ariel Juliano, former human kinetics dean Artemio Isidro, college of engineering dean Aurora Matias and former UST Tigers coach Pido Jarencio, is to find a replacement for head coach Rey Madrid, whose tenure expires at the end of the year.
If the Maroons expect to dish out a decent performance next season, Dizer said they would need a full-time coach, hence the search.
The Maroons won only one game this season, and a television report said that out of a hundred games UP played, one can count with his fingers how many of these it actually won.
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Updated on the plan, Palami said he was very pleased.
“This is a step in the right direction,” he texted from Europe. “I think the primordial question for UP is not really who the next coach would be but what kind of coach the team needs at this time. The ‘who’ will come after.”
Palami said he hopes to help the committee look for the right man.
“What is clear is that there is a clamor for the team to do better next season, and our decisions will have a huge impact on how well we will be faring then,” he added.
Dizer said the search would start immediately, but it looks like the panel will have to wait until Palami returns from his trip on Monday to discuss the “what” of the search.
UP is the UAAP’s host next season.
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Certain UAAP alumni raised a quizzical brow when Dizer included UST alumnus Pido Jarencio in the search panel when there are several UP alumni cagers to choose from, including Rain or Shine mentor Yeng Guiao, Meralco’s governor to the PBA board Ryan Gregorio, Hapee assistant coach Benjie Paras, to name a few.
Dizer explained that he had worked with Jarencio when he was the skills coach of the Tanduay team in the PBA many years ago. He noted that Pido’s wife is a UP alumna, and supports the academe’s various programs.
Incidentally, in case you haven’t noticed, Andre Paras was no longer on the UP bench this past season. He was undergoing a one-year residency with the San Beda Red Lions.
He will be eligible to play in 2015.