Baldwin delighted to stay with Ateneo

MANILA, Philippines -- “Ateneo is where I belong.”

Signing a three-year extension to return as coach of the Ateneo Blue Eagles “feels like coming home without having left home,” Tab Baldwin said.

Baldwin and Ateneo had two reasons to celebrate on Saturday – the extension that will keep the multi-time UAAP champion in Katipunan, and a close 86-83 victory over the Far Eastern University Tamaraws.

The 67-year-old mentor, after the game, said that while there was a period of uncertainty the past year, they were able to “put all that to bed.”

“It's sort of a mini celebration for all of us to be validated with the offer of a job. As a coach, you're always grateful when you get a job offer. I was very excited to sit down and finalize this deal. Now, I just get busy looking forward to the future,” he told reporters.

“As I said to Boss [Manny Pangilinan] and I said to Father Bobby [Yu] today, it kind of feels like coming home without having left home. Ateneo is where I belong. I'm delighted to be here,” he added.

He bared that he dipped his “toes in the market” and saw what’s out there, but Baldwin stressed that Ateneo is where he wanted to be.

“At the end of the day, this is a great offer to continue the work with the same people. If I haven't said thank you to God and thank you for the opportunity to continue to work at a Catholic university and continue to work in an environment where we truly do reinforce values,” he said.

“We truly do believe, and I don't know how you can make an emphasis on the word truly, but we truly do believe in the concept of a student-athlete at Ateneo. I'm very privileged, very honored. When I say my prayers tonight, I will thank God. Because I also know that over the last 10 years I've grown as a person and now the opportunity to do the work that really we should be doing at our university is not just developing players but developing people,” he added.

Ateneo missed the Final Four last season, which drummed up rumors of Baldwin’s status as his contract was set to expire at season’s end.

But now, he will continue to lead a team led by Jared Bahay and one-and-dones Kymani Ladi and Dom Escobar, who all shone bright against FEU.

And while the team is talented, they are still young, and it showed on crucial plays in regulation.

“We've got to grow up. We've got to mature. If we make mistakes like that, we're going to cost ourselves games that we actually play well enough to win. And a championship team can't do that. La Salle won't do that. And if we want to be there slugging it out with the top teams at the end and not just showing up to be at the party, then we've got to learn,” he said.

“We've got to learn fast. We've got to grow up and we still have young players. But they're talented players, I'm excited about them. But I can't wait to get in the dugout and tear some strips off of them right now.”

Ateneo will try to continue its strong start in UAAP Season 88 as it takes on University of the East on Wednesday, 2 p.m., at the same venue.