Perasol: Coaching Ateneo ‘was really a joy’

PHOTO by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

His career with Ateneo may have ended in the most heart-wrenching way possible, but Blue Eagles head coach Bo Perasol bids goodbye to the blue-and-white without any regrets.

Perasol ended his three-year stint with Ateneo in another failed attempt to win a championship or at least even make the finals after the Blue Eagles were sent packing following 76-74 defeat at the hands of Mac Belo and Far Eastern University.

Perasol may have fallen short but his coaching stint with Ateneo is still something he would want to continue to do in his future endeavors.

“I can’t say, I really need time which path I will choose, but it’s something that would be similar to Ateneo,” Perasol said of his future plans. “It’s very ironic because a lot of people would say [my stint with Ateneo] was supposedly a traumatic experience but it wasn’t.”

Perasol had big shoes to fill when he took over as coach heading into Season 76 with the Blue Eagles coming off a fifth straight championship.

During Perasol’s tenure, the Eagles missed the Final Four in his first season, returned to the semifinals the following year but were sent to an early exit despite holding the top spot before Saturday where a Belo buzzer beater booted them out.

It was an eventful coaching career for Perasol. But the former PBA mentor, however, doesn’t want to look at it negatively.

“For me it was really a joy, the journey was really a joy,” Perasol said. “The downside of that is I wasn’t able to deliver what everybody was expecting and that was a championship, but on the personal side it was the experience that was really fantastic for me.”