Coach Tab Baldwin provides update on ADMU team’s well-being
Ateneo Blue Eagles head coach Tab Baldwin provided an update on the emotional state of his players following the deaths of student-athletes Divine Adili and Rene Clert Baterbonia.
Speaking during an interview on the Powcast Sports podcast on Friday, June 12, Baldwin did not sugarcoat the immense grief his team is carrying.
"Honestly, I haven't been with them that much," Baldwin shared. "We speak online and I asked them how they're doing, but most of them give very terse responses, you know, 'I'm okay, Coach.'"
Baldwin said that he only saw the whole team on Thursday evening, when the Ateneo community gathered on campus for a candlelight vigil and mass dedicated to Adili and Baterbonia.
"I think what you see is what you expect to see," Baldwin said, addressing podcast host Homer Sayson. "Some of them seem pretty good, some of them seem not very good at all, and some of them, I'm sure, are, you know, cloaking their real feelings."
The university has mobilized mental health resources to support the student-athletes and coaching staff during this time. However, Baldwin acknowledged that healing is never a one-size-fits-all process, especially for young athletes.
"The university has offered all of us guidance counselors and grief counselors, and I think we've all had conversations with them," Baldwin explained. "And the degree to which they can help us, is... it's the same as it is in every case like this. Some people, they help a lot, other people are more reluctant to let them in."
"To outward appearances, I think that you know they're not as bad as they were in the immediate aftermath we were in shock," Baldwin said. "And last night they were clearly focused on the loss at the mass, and afterwards there was a lot of hugging, and there were some tears, but maybe that's cathartic."
Baldwin emphasized that the whole team might need to be together to process their shared pain.
"Maybe, maybe we need more of being together and talking things through, but I don't know. I'm not an expert," Baldwin admitted softly. "We're all trying to cope."
When the conversation turned toward his own emotional well-being, Baldwin redirected the focus away from himself. While he expressed deep gratitude for the outreach he has received, he emphasized that the priority must remain on the victims and their grieving families.
"I just keep saying to everybody... it's not about me," Baldwin said. "This shouldn't be about me. This should be about the prayers that we say for the repose of the souls of those two poor unfortunate players, and it should be about what can we do to bring comfort to the famil[es]."
On why he was silent
Baldwin on June 12 has spoken up through a video statement shared on Ateneo de Manila University's Facebook page. When asked why he remained silent about the incident for days, he said "it's actually a lot more straightforward than people realize."
"The university obviously, when the tragedy happened, the university wanted to handle things from the institutional standpoint, and obviously, they wanted all the facts and all the details and they wanted to process that and deal with the authorities that are in charge of this and are going to be in charge of this," he said. "It was more than a request—their determination was that not just me, but all of us involved should refrain from any public pronouncements, any discussions with the media, any posts on social media."
"As much as I would have loved to just tell what happened, to be perfectly honest, I don't think I was very capable at the time of recounting the details and reliving the horror of what we saw, and I felt also that the focus at the time should be really on the two boys that we all lost, especially the families," he explained.
"It was, I think, responsible of me and correct of me to comply with Ateneo's direction," he continued.
Baldwin, however, stressed that he understood why people were wondering why he kept mum about the incident for a while. "I get that, I understand that. But that was the determination of the powers that be and that's what I went along with."
"I know that the official process is going to take place and the facts are going to come out—and everybody wants that, we want that—but there's a time and a place for that," he continued. "It's hard, but it has to be done. I'm grateful for Ateneo for finally allowing me to begin the process of talking to people about this."
Baterbonia, 19, and Adili, 21, of the Ateneo Blue Eagles men's basketball team, lost their lives on June 8 after a drowning incident in Dipaculao, Aurora.
Initial findings by the Aurora police have suggested the incident was purely accidental, and ruled out foul play, but a subpoena was issued against the team's American-New Zealander head coach by the Department of Labor and Employment over his employment permit as a foreigner, but he still remained silent until June 12. His first public appearance since the incident was at a community vigil for Adili and Baterbonia on June 11 inside the university campus.
In a video statement on Friday evening, the coach said that they're "carrying immense sorrow, we're carrying immense grief, we're carrying immense remorse."
Baldwin stressed that he's also feeling the magnitude of their loss. "Never again will I be able to help them develop into the basketball players they wanted to be, to help them grow into the young men that they promised that they could be," he said. "But that's insignificant compared to what their families are experiencing."
