By MARK REY MONTEJO
Coach Yuri Escueta may have steered San Beda back to NCAA summit, but this young and amiable coach has refused to take the credit alone.
Instead, he is deflecting most of the credit to the formidable think tanks on the Red Lions lair that featured veteran coaches like Boyet Fernandez and Norman Black.
Humble and admirable character.
He stressed the two helped him a lot that enabled the Red Lions complete their Cinderella run.
“Very important, coach Boyet (Fernandez) and coach Norman (Black) with their championship experience, even guys like Andre (Santos), Francis (Cruz), Alex (Angeles) and Jenkins (Mesina) diba?” Escueta said.
“They really worked hard. All [of us] are students, even me I listen to the two head coaches (Black and Fernandez), and to the younger ones, we debate on everything, we talked about it para kaming nasa war room when we have coaches meetings, we have fun when we’re all together,” he added.
The team survived numerous do-or-die games to reach the Final Four and needed two more when it faced Mapua in the Best-of-3 finale. The Red Lions displayed their poise and willed through the adversity – a culture that he credited to his predecessor for building on to his players.
Escueta even dedicated the title to the former San Beda coach.
“Sabi ko nga kay coach Boyet (Fernandez), para kay coach Boyet ‘to eh, wala naman dapat ako dito, diba?”
“Ewan ko kung anong nangyari, nangyari yung mga nangyari during bubble season (2021), I shouldn’t be here, so I said to him “Para sayo ‘to, team nya ‘to eh, championship niya ‘to,” he concluded.
Escueta took over the team in lieu of Fernandez, who led the Mendiola squad to its three-peat title run in 2016 to 2018.
After two-straight seasons of not reaching the Finals, Fernandez was relieved of his post and worked as a consultant of the young mentor at San Beda
