Ryan named Hotdogs coach

Less than two weeks before the opening of the 2003 PBA season, the San Miguel Corp. management made a surprise announcement yesterday, appointing Ryan Gregorio the new head coach of Purefoods with former mentor Eric Altamirano tapped to head a marketing sports program soon to be launched by the giant food conglomerate.

"This is a new challenge for me. Although this is still about basketball, the job will put to test my managerial skills. I think this is a great opportunity to expand my horizon," said Altamirano in accepting the job.

"I have given the team a championship. Maybe it’s really time for me to pass the baton to Ryan (Gregorio)," he added.

Altamirano, the 36-year-old former UP Maroon who had been head coach in the PBA the past seven years, announced the SMC management decision before the Hotdogs held their practice yesterday morning at the Reyes Gym in Mandaluyong.

It came as a big surprise to the players and the Purefoods officials since the SMC top management kept it under wraps until the announcement yesterday.

"I’m still dazed," said Gregorio in reaction to his appointment to take over Altamirano.

Altamirano thought Gregorio, though only 30, was ripe for the job as seen in his successful handling of the team in last year’s Governors Cup."I’ve mentored him very well and I’m confident he can continue the winning tradition of the team, " he said.

Purefoods team manager Rene Pardo agreed Gregorio is ready to take over the reins from their former coach.

Gregorio, a former UP Maroon like Altamirano, was named co-winner of the PBA Press Corps Coach of the Year award last year for steering the Hotdogs to the first conference championship while calling the shots on an interim basis with Altamirano on loan to the national team.

A press statement from SMC said it is launching a marketing program utilizing basketball promotions in the countryside as a tool for the company’s corporate strategy.

The project will involve at least two teams composed of inactive pro players who will conduct basketball clinics and exhibition matches against varsity clubs and team selection in major towns and cities around the country.

"It’s a new program which is actually still vague to me. But the concept is to provide jobs to those players who have become jobless and use them to promote the San Miguel products. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone," said Altamirano, who thanked SMC top men Danding Cojuangco and Ramon Ang for entrusting him the project.

But league sources didn’t see the SMC project as a mere marketing sports program. There were speculations this will be used as a vehicle to back a possible comeback by Cojuangco to politics in the near future.

To be assisted by veteran coach Chris Calilan, Altamirano is to call a tryout and interview ex-pros for the project. He’s inviting interested players to contact him through SMC’s corporate marketing unit at the San Miguel Head Office Complex in Mandaluyong.

Envisioned to compose the touring teams are some of the top 25 players that the PBA has ever produced.

SMC officials said also lined up as part of the project are sports journalism seminars and writing contests for students of the schools and areas where the teams will play in order to further contribute to youth development in the countryside.