The Final Score: Will Pido Jarencio’s tears of destiny fall in game two?

I worry for UAAP teams who over-celebrate after winning game one. The UAAP Finals is a best-of-three contest. You need two victories to win the championship. Hence, winning one game is just attaining 50 percent of the ultimate goal. The other 50 percent, as most champion teams will tell you, is so much harder to finish. So even if a team wins game one, why even celebrate at all?

Yet amidst the maddening post-game scene, after UST beat La Salle by one point in game one, one of the toughest men in basketball, the undisputed Yeng Guiao of the UAAP, struggled to keep it together. UST head coach Pido Jarencio, in an unlikely burst of emotion, couldn’t push the tears back into his eyes.

Jarencio’s inner voice of reason was probably pleading with him: "Pare huwag ka muna umiyak. Mahaba pa ‘tong series na ‘to." It was only game one. It was common sense to stay calm. But his heart overruled and probably countered: "Eh bahala sila sa buhay nila. Walang basagan ng trip. Ako ang siga dito. Kung gusto kong umiyak, iiyak ako.”

Former UST starting point guard Jeric Fortuna watched game one on TV. He couldn’t believe what he witnessed. He saw his former coach, the coach every Growling Tiger learned to fear, crying on live television.

"First time ko nakita si coach na umiiyak ng ganoon," Fortuna admitted. "And talagang iyak. Dati kasi nakikita ko lang naluluha si Coach pero sa dugout lang, nagpupunas ng eyes. Teary-eyed."

Dylan Ababou, another former UST star, was in the Araneta Coliseum to watch game one. He also saw his former coach crying at the end of the game.

"Well nung nakita ko siyang umiyak, naisip ko normal lang yun," Dylan said. "Impossible kasi nangyari, na with all the injuries tapos umabot pa sila ng Finals. So sobrang elated yung feeling kasi nanalo sila sa game one, hindi naman ako nagtaka kung bakit siya umiyak.

But unlike Fortuna, Ababou has seen it before.

It's the UAAP Finals in 2006. Just moments after the final buzzer of game three, after UST beat Ateneo for the title, Ababou looks around and sees Coach Pido standing near the three-point line, right outside the the top of the key area, waving at UST students and supporters. Ababou notices the tears strolling down Jarencio's cheeks. Teammates are about to carry their coach on their shoulders. It's a lasting snapshot of a coach he both feared and loved.

"Una ko siyang nakitang umiyak nung nang-champion kami," Dylan remembered. "Tears of joy talaga yun. Yun yung first time ko nakita na umiyak siya."
 

 
 

So what if Jarencio cries when UST wins a big game? What's the big deal? Other coaches from other teams cry too. But in Jarencio's case, there is a stunning irony. Maybe only those close to him will understand. Maybe only those who have played for him will be able to explain.

Fortuna remembered a scene during one of their practices. They were coming off a loss. The team wasn't playing well. Players couldn't execute. And Coach Pido was in a very, very sour mood.

"Yung mga students who were watching the practice pinalabas ni Coach sa gym," Fortuna recalled. "Mga 30 minutes or more, pinapaglitan niya kaming lahat. Sumisigaw talaga siya. Tapos yung hawak-hawak niya na bote ng Sprite, binato niya sa court. Basag! Tigil yung practice. Uwian na."

Sometimes, Jarencio, a legendary prankster according to former players, can calculate his rage and turn his internal tempest into his own best-kept secret.

"Noong 2006, nasa Pangasinan kami noon for a team building activity," Dylan shared. "Nasa isang bar kami na may live band. Then si Anthony Espiritu sinabi sa banda batiin na happy birthday si Coach Pido pero hindi niya birthday. Binati si Coach nung singer and kumanta kaming lahat ng Happy Birthday. Talagang kantahan and tawanan kami. Tapos sinabi ni Coach, 'Sige humanda kayo sa Lunes.' Nakangiti naman si Coach so akala namin okay lang talaga sa kanya. Akala talaga namin nag-jo-joke lang siya."

Sometimes, the perfect time to unleash hell is now. Other times, it's best to wait for the right moment before spewing venom on your players.

"Pagdating ng Lunes, lahat yata ng drills na pwede gawin sa basketball pinagawa sa amin ni Coach," Dylan said. "As in lahat yata ng nalalaman ni Coach sa basketball, pinagawa sa amin nung Monday. Parang apat na oras kaming tumatakbo sa ensayo. Sa sobrang hirap nung practice, sinabi ni Jervy Cruz na nagmamakaawa, 'Tama na Coach.' Tapos sabi lang sa amin in Coach, 'Eh di ba birthday ko? Birthday ko pala ah. Eh di happy birthday din sa inyo!' Nakangiti lang si Coach habang yung mga assistant coaches namin nagtatawanan sa gilid."

I'm sure there's a method behind Jarencio's madness. You can't compete for a second championship by just being lucky. But I can't bring myself to call him methodical. Parang hindi bagay. Mas magical compared to methodical. For he has a kind of basketball sorcery that enables players to overachieve. Or maybe his ultimate sorcery is making all of us believe that when they win, it must be due to dramatic overachievement.

Tingin ko talaga if I play for Coach Pido, and he instructed me to dunk, I will defy physics, gravity, improbability, and all rational thinking just to validate my coach's irrational belief. "Coach ano mas gusto mo? Reverse double-pump or windmill?"

Thus, when the tough guy cries in high-definition, even if the road to the championship still extends for miles, I can't help but view it as a metaphysical exercise. It has to be more than just exhaling an emotional sigh of relief. It is Jarencio giving everyone an all-access pass to the pulsating Jarencio UAAP experience.
 

 
 

 
 

On some days, the coach is inside the gym screaming, "Put*ng i*a niyo! Put*ng in*ng buhay 'to! Hirap na hirap kami dito mag-prepare. Kaya pala tayo natatalo kasi puro kayo puyat! Hindi na kayo nahiya!" His face is as red as a rose. He hurls the basketball toward the overhead lights. He decides to kick players out of the team for brazenly breaking team rules on the spot.

On most days, the coach is treating the players to free spaghetti and palabok at the Lopez Canteen across the old UST Gym. The spaghetti and palabok, however, aren't really free. Larry Lopez, or "Daddy Lopez" to the players, writes them all down on a list under the coach's name. Because the coach pays for them out of his own pocket.

If you're rooting for UST, you're hoping Jarencio's emotional display at the end of game one is calculated. Even if the tears flowed uncontrollably, you're hoping the coach still knows that the race is just halfway done.

If you're rooting for La Salle, you're hoping Jarencio cried too early in the series and his players celebrated too soon. Perhaps, that emotional display by the coach and his Growling Tigers will serve as fiery motivation for the Green Archers.

UST won game one by just one point. Just one precarious point. If La Salle, still the more stacked team man-for-man, still the best-performing team since the start of the second round, still superbly coached by a coach that's the opposite of the mercurial Jarencio, wins the next two games, I don't think neutral observers will be surprised.

Then again, if you know Coach Pido the way Ababou and Fortuna know Coach Pido, the tears are rare but they don't trickle out of a combustible coach's eyes without reason.

"Siguro kasi dami na nila pinagdaanan kaya siya naiyak," Fortuna said. "I think seryoso siya nung sinabi niya na hindi nila akalain na aabot sila ng Finals this year. Dami ng injuries. Si Jeric Teng. Si Aljon Mariano. Walang nag-akala na he could bring them to the Finals. Sobrang happy lang siguro si Coach."

"Gustong-gusto ko ko makita tears of joy ulit ni Coach Pido," Ababou shared. "Malaki utang na loob ko kay Coach Pido kasi siya ang nagdala sa akin kung nasaan man ako ngayon."

Jarencio will be on the sidelines in game two hoping to prove that his tears were, in fact, tears of destiny. Ababou, who will be watching at the venue, will pray that he sees his coach's elation again. Fortuna, meanwhile, will watch at home.

I asked Fortuna, "Bakit hindi ka manonood sa Araneta?"

Fortuna replied, "Kapag nanunuod ako ng live, pansin ko natatalo eh. So TV na lang para tuloy-tuloy na. Baka masisi pa ako ni Coach eh.”  - AMD, GMA News