PBA’s top assistant coaches to oversee 2006 rookie camp

Five of the PBA’s top assistant coaches will personally oversee the league’s 2006 Rookie Camp that gets going today at the Philsports Arena.

Sta. Lucia’s Adonis Tierra, Nash Racela of Coca-Cola, Air21’s Ricky Dandan, Dickie Bachman of Alaska and Juno Sauler of Ginebra had been tapped to handle each of the five teams culled from among the 51 rookie hopefuls vying for this year’s Draft.

All five coaches will be calling the shots on different teams every game day to enable them — and other PBA teams and scouts — to evaluate the rookie applicants under varying team systems.

The rookie candidates were divided into Red, Yellow, White, Green and Blue teams.

Each team will have to play a total of four games for the duration of the weeklong activity that ends on Aug. 11.

Two games are to be played every game day beginning at 3 p.m. The camp is free to the public.

Potential No. 1 pick Arwind Santos, Lewis Alfred Tenorio and Joseph Yeo are together to spearhead the White team. NCAA stars Boyet Bautista, Aaron Aban and Rookie/MVP Gabby Espinas are at the helm of the Blue squad while Mark Isip, Magnum Membrere and Chico Lanete star for the Yellow five.

Bannering Team Green are Ronjay Enrile, Robert Sanz and Mark Andaya while Fil-Am Kelly Williams and Ryan Rizada lead the Red team.

Red team, to be coached by Dandan, takes on Yellow, with Sauler at the helm, on opening day (Aug. 7) followed by the match between Green (Tierra) and Blue (Racela).

The rest of the schedule is as a follows: (Aug 8) Yellow vs White and Red vs Green; (Aug 9) White vs Blue and Green vs Yellow; (Aug 10) Red vs White and Yellow vs Blue; (Aug 11) Blue vs Red and White vs Green (Bachman).

This marks the first time the Rookie Camp, now on its fourth straight year, has been expanded to make it a weeklong affair.

"We want to give all rookie hopefuls the fair chance to showcase their talent and ability that’s why we deemed it best to conduct a longer and more significant camp this year," said PBA commissioner Noli Eala.

The busy sked for all rookie hopefuls — that began by having them undergo skills and endurance tests — will be capped by the Aug. 20 Draft at the Market Market in Taguig.