JIMMY ALAPAG’S transformation into a coach has started at San Beda College.
The Talk ’N Text playmaker has been helping out in the Red Lions’ practices and this was confirmed by new San Beda Head Coach Jamike Jarin, whose photo with Alapag and Red Lions Team Manager Jude Roque has been posted on Facebook.
“He’s just helping out,” Jarin told the BusinessMirror, adding that the 37-year-old guard has no official function with the reigning National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball champions.
Alapag, who played his final stint with Gilas Pilipinas in the last Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, last year, has expressed his desire to help the national team in a different capacity.
Although he has yet to retire as a player in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), the former Most Valuable Player said coaching will be one of his options once he hangs up his jersey.
There are reports that Alapag is being considered by Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) to be one of the assistants of newly appointed Gilas five mentor Tab Baldwin on the national team that will vie in the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) Asia Men’s Championship this August in Wuhan, China.
The Wuhan tournament is the qualifier for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Alapag will be a big asset in Baldwin’s coaching staff as the 5-foot-6 playmaker has displayed the biggest fighting heart during Gilas’s historic World Cup of Basketball campaign in Spain, also last year.
And his journey as a coach will start at San Beda, which is supported by SBP President Manuel V. Pangilinan.
The Red Lions are eyeing their sixth straight NCAA crown this coming season under new mentor Jarin, who replaced Boyet Fernandez. Fernandez jumped to NLEX in the PBA.