Letran Knights welcome a former Squire

Three decades after he played one season with the Letran Squires in the NCAA, former PBA coach Alfrancis Chua is back at the Intramuros-based institution for another tour of duty.

Perhaps as long as three seasons this time, maybe even longer based on the document he was asked to sign when he dropped by Letran last week to meet with the Knights coaches and players at the office of Fr. Clarence Victor Marquez, the school rector.

No, Chua, now the sports director at San Miguel Corporation and board representative of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in the Philippine Basketball Association, isn’t making a return to coaching, six years after he led the Kings to the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals.

His designation, as indicated in what amounted to his appointment paper, is this: Special Assistant to the Rector for Sports Development.

What that title encompasses remains a grey area at this point except that it would cover basketball matters.

“Siguro doon muna magsisimula,” said Chua, who played for the Squires, along with the late Gido Babilonia, as a senior high in 1985 before both of them transferred to University of Santo Tomas for their collegiate years in a complicated arrangement set up by the higher-ups.

Although UST blood runs in his veins, the mark of a Letranite remained seared to his being. And so when his ‘alma mater’ came calling, Chua dropped what he was doing and drove all the way from his Ortigas office to the white edifice on 151 Muralla Street in Intramuros to see what he could do.

Overseeing Letran’s basketball program appears to be one of his functions in-waiting, it turned out.

During his initial meeting with the Knights, the former Squire emphasized to the senior players how important education is and how fortunate they are to have been granted scholarships for doing something they all love to do – playing basketball.

It has been just a couple of weeks since he dropped by Alab Pilipinas practice to meet with Coach Jimmy Alapag and the players, who included Ginebra import Justin Brownlee and former Petron reinforcement Renaldo Balkman, and there pledged SMC’s recommitment to the squad in the Asean Basketball League.

Now he has brought a team close to his heart under the same corporate umbrella. Words used during the two meetings differed, but the message was the same.

“The San Miguel Group is ready to back sports in whatever way it can, especially in disciplines involving the youth,” Chua said. “The company will always be there to help.”