Coming home

ONE week into his appointment as the new head coach of the University of the Philippines (UP) women's basketball team, Eric Altamirano has been getting back the feel of his home university.

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He’s drunk up the familiar sylvan setting, the flavor and vibe of the Iskolars ng Bayan and the new sports infrastructures that have gone up on campus that were totally not there when he and his generation of Fighting Maroons waged their battles in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).

He last donned the Maroon and Green as one of the heroes of the 1986 championship team. He became head coach of the men’s team in 1995 and 1996 (Seasons 58 and 56). Since then, he has made an even bigger name for himself in the Philippine Basketball Association as head coach of Mobiline, Purefoods and Coca Cola.

In 2004, he put up his own basketball school, Coach E, the only personalized basketball training school in Asia distinguished by extensive laboratory skill-based basketball training. He founded the National Basketball Training Center (NBTC), the official grassroots basketball program of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.

When he joined National University as its head coach, he brought the Bulldogs to only their second UAAP men’s basketball championship in Season 77, a crown they first won in 1954 (Season 17) behind their revered legend, Olympian Narciso Bernardo.