It's once again the start of the school year and as expected, eager freshmen are up to claim their fresh set of athletics shirt and jogging pants.
Up on the fifth floor of the P.E. Building, students slowly filled up the bleachers as new head coach Derrick Pumaren mapped out plays for the Red Warriors. Curiously, 6-foot-8 big man Charles Mammie is seen sitting on the sidelines, not participating in practice.
I asked him what was he doing as he sat and watched his teammates make the whiteboard plays into reality. I also wondered if he was late again, if his tardiness was what made the coach decide to sit him out just like in the past. After all, Mammie had the reputation of being a hard-head, which forced coaches to discipline the Sierra Leone-born center by keeping him on the bench.
But Charles said, “I just went from therapy and coach is reserving me for the season,” pointing to his knees.
Two elementary students soon approached Mammie and exchanged pleasantries with the big man. “They're my friends,” Mammie said, while telling stories about the kids cheering for him loudly whenever they watch the UE games.
“One of them is Ken, and the other one, I don't really know his name,” said Charles, trying to contain his laughter. He soon found out the other kid's name was Joriel. The children sat at the bleachers near Charles until an assistant coach waved them off to the other side of the court.
Later on, Pumaren asked his first and second group to proceed with their press, as the energy level in the gym got a notch higher.
Mammie stood up near Pumaren and looked on as the play transpired on the other end of the court. The 22-year-old, with a white towel draped on his hulking shoulders, barked instructions like a coach to help his teammates go to their spots.
Moments later, Pumaren blew his whistle and called his players to center court and prayed.
For some, this might signal that the practice is over. But Pumaren is no ordinary coach. The team went to one corner of the court where a whiteboard was waiting for them.
With brother and assistant coach Dindo standing, the players sat and listened as coach Derrick slowly drew arrows and circles with a marker.
Coach Derrick is now Professor Derrick.
One by one, he picked a few Red Warriors to go up and take a shot at the whiteboard. One of them was Charles. He took the marker from coach Dindo, mapped out the play, and explained what happens where. He looked at his coach waiting for a response, and the eye-glassed mentor said, “Correct.” Mammie did a little bit of showboating, looking to his teammates and pointed his index finger to his head, saying, “I know this! I'm listening,” which triggered laughs among the squad.
“Coach is a perfectionist and we have to prove that we fully understand what he is teaching to us,” Mammie said. “He's more focused on me, because when you get it wrong, you have to keep on doing your assignments.”
For coach Derrick, basketball is more than just being physically prepared for the games. That's why he has subjected the team to these post-game classes.
“I just want the players to get involved,” he said.
“I am trying to find out if they really know the plays. Its more of getting their minds ready,” the seasoned mentor said, admitting that this is the first time he has done this exercise with any squad he has coached in his almost three decades of experience.
Taking the head role in the UE fray has been quite a ride for the 51-year-old, baring that when he first took the job, he didn't even know the players' names, including the spitfire Roi Sumang.
Now? “Roi will be our number one point guard. He's one of the best point guards out there in the UAAP,” said Pumaren.
Looking at it, Pumaren's coaching career has really been a wild ride ever since he first took hold of this capacity, serving as an apprentice of Ron Jacobs with the national team in the '80s.
Through the course of his illustrious coaching career, he has seen days in La Salle, Magnolia in the PABL, and had stints in the PBA with Pepsi, Sunkist, Sta. Lucia, Purefoods, Tanduay, FedEx, and Talk 'N Text.
Before taking the UE appointment, Pumaren has been more involved in coaching consultancy duties, namely with JRU and La Salle, before lending his inputs to the Hong Kong national team for the past three years. “Sa Hong Kong, it’s like half-baked coaching. I've been in touch with basketball, but I really want coaching talaga – full-time coaching.”
And now, he's back in the collegiate circles, reinstating the patented Pumaren press in the amateurs - something the UAAP had not seen since his brothers Franz and Dindo left La Salle.
“So far, I'm very happy with how the team accepted it,” he said. “We know that we will be a pressing team. We know that our defense will be our number one offense.”
“The team is very, very into it. They're embracing the system and they are probably 60-to-70-percent there. They are not familiar with it, but they're getting there.”
Also, Pumaren said he has brought a little more than his signature press in this tour of duty with the Red Warriors.
“Discipline,” he said, as he explained how he used this technique in handling UE. “I really instilled discipline because we're going to play disciplined basketball for 40 minutes.”
“It's not just on the floor, but in and out of the court. We need to have that discipline because we have to carry that. I'm not saying that they didn't have discipline then, but I am very hard on that so we can carry that to the games.”
“For example, coming in on time. When I say nine o'clock, we start at nine. If they don't come here at nine, there will be repercussions. When its nine o'clock, its nine o'clock,” the stern coach channeling in his inner five-star general. “I don't allow players walking around on slippers, not wearing jerseys, talking, things like that. Syempre, it’s still hard. They still have their habits before, but it will take some time and we'll get there naman.”
He added, “We will be under control. We're not just going to be run-and-gun like the other teams, but we're going to play a disciplined brand of basketball.”
Though it seems like Pumaren is a hard shell to crack, you might be surprised. He is also a character. He put on a wacky smile when he gamely posed with Mammie and Moustapha Arafat for a photo. He even joked around with his players.
And maybe that’s how the UE Red Warriors will be this season: a bunch of characters.
From coach Derrick, to Roi Sumang and Chris Javier mimicking Gregg Popovich’s quotes, Bong Galanza saying he’s not Bong Galanza, Arafat striding around the court like a bird out of its cage, to Charles Mammie vowing to be mature while fooling around with his little buddies.
“I practice every day, trying to be the best I can so I can improve myself for the team,” he said. “I’ll still play with a lot of emotions, but I’m still gonna be me – Charles Mammie. I’m more matured now and more responsible. I’ll be good.”
The only certain thing is uncertainty, like if coach Derrick really lives up to his call for his players to be matured, or if Charles can really contain his emotions this season.
But for now, the only truth is that the players will have another play to study for tomorrow’s practice-slash-lesson.
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