Ayo’s system of trust puts Letran back on top
As Letran celebrated its return to the top, one must look at how the Knights started it all and how the dream was accomplished.
For Letran, the mission of ending 10 years of futility began with an unpopular decision.
To the shock of Letran community, Aldin Ayo, a shy mentor from Sorsogon, was tasked by school’s top officials to turn things around for the Knights of Intramuros.
Except for being a former Knight himself – a member of the victorious 1998 and 1999 champion squads – Ayo was nobody in the coaching circle so much so that he was denied access to the Letran gym by an unsuspecting guard in his first official training session with the Knights.
Ayo was embarrassed with that incident he promised to himself to make good with the opportunity given to him.
“After nung nangyaring yun, alam ko talagang hindi ito magiging madali,” Ayo said.
Slowly but surely, Ayo almost turned everyone into his believers by ending the Knights’ decade-long drought for a championship, fittingly against their longtime tormentors and bitter rivals in the San Beda Red Lions.
Their 85-82 overtime win over the Red Lions last Thursday was the result of their courageous performance and a character steeled by desire to rise and conquer the odds.
And as students lined up to take photos with the hottest coach in town, Ayo can’t help but look back at the hardships and the journey they went through.
But he’s happy and ultra proud of his boys.
Even Kevin Racal, the star forward who drained the telling blows in Letran’s championship-sealing victory, admitted that he didn’t know who his coach was before the season.
“Hindi ko nga kilala yan si coach noon,” Racal said with a laugh. “Yung utility pa namin ang nagsabi na siya yung coach namin. Hindi ko talaga siya kilala, di ko rin kinakausap kasi mukha siyang masungit. Hindi ngumingiti.”
But Ayo’s not new to hardships and challenges. His basketball clinic, ABC Ideas, started out as a means to fund an ailing basketball program for a small college in Sorsogon.
A year later, that program was shut off.
He then continued his clinic and through that he started getting the attention of multi-titled coach Eric Altamirano who invited him to the Nike Elite Basketaball camp, before joining other development programs such as the National Basketball Training Center and the Jr. NBA.
He would then be invited by coach Glenn Capacio and Louie Gonzales to join Manny Pacquiao’s coaching staff during Kia’s maiden season in the PBA and there his story in Manila begins.
“Laking pasalamat ko talaga kila coach Glenn at coach Louie. Sila talaga yung tumulong sa’kin,” he said.
But that’s just the start of his long journey.
Again, he was given the task of making the most out of a small Letran squad. A squad which boasts of brilliant players like Racal, Mark Cruz and Rey Nambatac but wasn’t blessed with the ceiling that Letran squads normally have.
It may sound like a broken record now, nobody expected Letran to be in the Final Four – let alone win the title – but Ayo’s gift was extra-ordinary, and it didn’t come from the technical side. His biggest gift was making his players believe and fit into his system of trust, accountability and hard work.
“Tinanong ko noon yung players ko, ano ba ang isi-set natin na goal? Maraming nagsabi na Final Four, pwede na,” said Ayo.
“Nung sinabi ko na naniniwala ba tayo magcha-champion tayo? Many of them laughed. Until na matalo namin yung lahat ng contenders, dun lang sila nakapagsabi na kaya pala namin,” he added.
Now they believed, they trusted the system and they won.