Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Jayson Castro felt more rejuvenated with the infusion of the young bloods in Gilas Pilipinas’ evening practice session at Meralco Gym.
“I feel younger,” Castro said in Filipino.
“It feels good because you can see it in their faces that they’re excited and they want to learn. It’s a good feeling for me as a veteran that I can give them advice about the international game that they can use in case they get called up.”
Seeing the young guns buckle down to work, Castro was ecstatic for the future of the national team as he worked with guys like Robert Bolick, CJ Perez, Paul Desiderio, and Juan Gomez de Liaño in the session, giving them pointers on how a guard’s role in coach Chot Reyes’ system is played.
Castro said the young guards are lucky that they are already getting valuable lessons and exposure at their age.
“Their advantage is they started this early. At their age, they’re already part of the pool. They still have the time to develop their skills and there are still lots of training camps and tournaments that they can join to fast track their development. I just hope they grow quickly so they will be ready for 2023,” he said.
“I hope that we inspired them that they had a chance to train with us. In the future, we’ll be the ones watching them once they are the ones playing for the national team,” he said.