UE Lady Red Warriors. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—As her final season approaches, the fun-loving Judith Abil looks to end her collegiate career with the University of the East in a more positive note than when she first arrived.
Abil arrived at UE in Season 77 where her team wound up with 14 losses against zero wins.
The Lady Warriors also didn’t improve that much for the next three seasons winning just four games from 2016 to 2018 but Abil feels the Season 81 would be a lot different from her first four years.
“There’s a feeling of excitement that I can’t explain and of course there’s a bit of sadness because this will be the last year that I’ll be with my teammates,” said Abil in Filipino after the team’s Wednesday practice at UE.
One of the reason’s for the team’s positive attitude is the presence of head coach Rod Roque, who is also UE’s athletic director.
Roque replaced Francis Vicente for an interim basis after UE started Season 80 at 0-7 but eventually stayed with the team going into Season 81.
Abil said Roque brought in fresh life to the team and the positive energy their jovial mentor easily spread to all the players.
“He’s always talking to us always telling us positive things because before the negative things just overwhelmed us and we weren’t able to handle all that pressure,” said Abil, who was the 26th best scorer in Season 80 with a total of 97 points.
“When sir Rod arrived it felt like we were finally able to breathe easily,” said Abil.