Ateneo’s Greek Tragedy
Sadly, however, the basketball gods had other ideas. Surely, no one wanted the outcome. It is a tragic heartbreaking story that has inflicted unbearable lifelong pain on so many lives.
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Sadly, however, the basketball gods had other ideas. Surely, no one wanted the outcome. It is a tragic heartbreaking story that has inflicted unbearable lifelong pain on so many lives.
The pre-UAAP season team-building phase of what was hoped to be the resurgent Ateneo squad’s penultimate activity before the final lineup was to be selected unfortunately evolved instead into a Greek tragedy of sorts for the Blue Eagles that has yet to fully play out. How did such an unintended tragedy occur?
What follows is this writer’s speculation of what may have happened on 8 June. It is NOT factual.
The treacherous waves of Dipaculao in Aurora swallowed up then snuffed out the lives of two young men, Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili, who were on the cusp of gaining entry to the fabled and storied Ateneo Blue Eagles. The team’s coaching staff knew the demanding alumni community had been growing restless since the school’s last championship in 2022. They had to deliver this season. So the pressure was full on to halt the steep decline of the Eagles’ fortunes and all knew what it would take. Been there, done that.
Talent and skills are a given. More importantly, the coaching staff, led by the head coach, had to forge qualities needed to win. Toughness of mind. Toughness of body. Toughness of spirit. Teamwork. Teamwork. Teamwork.
And this path to victory could best be fostered by a common experience. A brotherhood, to be forged under fire, under extreme stress. And not to count the cost. To live up to the reputation of the school’s mantra, to rise to the occasion of the deafening cheers of One Big Fight every single game.
That early morning in Aurora, all the players were joyfully eager to demonstrate to their exacting taskmasters that they had the skills and mental toughness to do what it takes. To be worthy to be a Fighting Blue Eagle.
Sadly, however, the basketball gods had other ideas. Surely, no one wanted the outcome. It is a tragic, heartbreaking story that has inflicted unbearable lifelong pain on so many lives. The families of Rene and Divine, the coaches, the players, and the Ateneo. It’s as if the basketball gods predestined this woeful ending in this often absurd theater of life.
Or, perhaps, was it hubris on the part of the head coach that led to Rene’s and Divine’s deaths?
After all, his past successes with college basketball and even with national teams both here and abroad attest to the effectiveness of his coaching methodology — tough love. Think Sparta. Think Marines. In his firm belief, it was the best way to triumph in team sports competition.
Why then, you may ask, did the basketball gods allow the tragedy to happen? Perhaps it was meant to be a lesson that the pursuit of honors and public acclamation in sports and other man-made endeavors cannot and should not be at the expense of precious lives. A lesson that we easily forget when everything is rosy and going our way.
Why did the school officials allow the team-building activity, a practice that has been in place for years, given apparently the previous harrowing experiences and close calls of other Ateneo players? Was it in blind pursuit of the lost glory of the 5-peat championship years of the past?
As an ardent Ateneo fellow alumnus recently commented on my article last week, the school’s inspirational hymn, “We Stand on a Hill,” in Aurora and during subsequent days of anguish and anger and incredulity, Ateneo officials failed to come down from the hill for Rene, Divine and the entire Ateneo community.
As of this writing, the head coach and 10 of the coaching management and support staff have been indicted for violation of the Anti-Hazing Law of 2018, a law that was enacted because of the death of a law student during the initiation rites of the Aegis Juris fraternity of UST in 2017. The jury is still out if others will be implicated.
The penalty is life imprisonment for the principals as well as for the deemed accomplices which on cursory reading of the law is so broad in coverage, it could even implicate the owners of the resort and school officials who were aware of the activity but did not take precautionary measures, or anyone present during the hazing for that matter.
What will this tragedy mean going forward? Will there be another revision of the law to explicitly note that the law very much covers other institutions and activities, particularly sports teams like basketball or football, and not just the current popular thinking and wording of the law that it just covers fraternities, the military, and clubs?
On the other hand, a counter school of thought is that any competitive endeavor like sports in quest of victory or the military and police who need to be trained and ready to respond to threats, softness in training may produce namby-pamby individuals who will wilt when faced with extreme stress. The folkloric Spartans who eons ago became known for their fierce fighting skills and the legendary Marines are exhibit number one for this way of life.
In the end, I guess sports, as in life, will always be a series of ups and downs, like a Greek tragedy. One can only hope that we would have been formed well enough to withstand these inevitable storms.
Until next week… OBF!
