No matter how Batang Gilas finishes at the third FIBA U17 World Cup in Dubai, Philippine national team coach Jamike Jarin will forever be known in history as the first man who brought the country on the global stage in this age category.
Jarin, 44, piloted Batang Gilas to a second place finish at the FIBA Asia U16 Championships in Tehran last year, earning a ticket to Dubai in the process. Qualifying for the Worlds wasn’t easy even as the Dubai tournament was expanded from 12 to 16 teams, allowing Asia an extra third slot. China and South Korea represented Asia in the first two stagings in Hamburg, Germany, in 2010 and Kaunas, Lithuania, in 2012. The US won both championships with China finishing seventh and South Korea 12th in 2010 and China winding up seventh again and South Korea 11th in 2012.
In Tehran, Batang Gilas opened with a shaky 90-88 win over Kazakhstan then lost a 95-90 decision to Chinese-Taipei. The Philippines went on to win its next five games over Jordan, 73-60, Japan, 94-76 and India, 78-67 in the second round, Iran, 79-52 in the knockout quarterfinals and Chinese-Taipei, 77-72, in the semifinals. In the final, the Philippines bowed to unbeaten China, 85-78. Batang Gilas’ youngest player Jolo Mendoza, 16, paced the Philippines in scoring in the last three outings, averaging 21.3 points. The showing was significant as Jarin towed the team to victory over a much bigger Iran by 27 points and Chinese-Taipei in the semifinals to avenge an early setback. The top three finishers – China, the Philippines and Japan – advanced to the Worlds.
Jarin’s love affair with basketball – as a coach, not as a player – started at a relatively young age. Jarin was 20 when he coached nine-year-old B. J. Manalo, later to become a UAAP star, in an inter-village Filinvest tournament in 1990. Manalo recalled that he was seven when Jarin, only 18, was his first coach in the Filinvest I neighborhood on Commonwealth Avenue. Then, in 1997, Jarin coached the girls varsity team of Our Lord’s Grace Montessori High in his first appearance in an organized school league. The next year, Chot Reyes’ brother Mike left the Ateneo juniors coaching staff to join the MBA and invited Jarin to fill in. Jarin and Reyes were Filinvest basketball buddies. That led to a long association with the Ateneo juniors whom Jarin took to eight UAAP titles in 13 seasons as head coach.
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The youngest of four, Jarin attended elementary and high school at San Beda and spent two years in college at Mendiola before transferring to FEU to earn a biology degree. His parents are both doctors who own the 30-bed Fairview General Hospital. His father Dr. Hermogenes Jarin is the hospital’s medical director and his mother Dr. Amelia Jarin is the administrator. Jarin’s wife Jane is a nurse whose priority patients are their 13-year-old son Iver and himself.
“For two years, I worked as a med rep,” said Jarin. “But I couldn’t disengage from basketball, particularly coaching. I’m only 5-2 so I thought to stay in the game, I should focus on coaching. I went to the US to attend coaching seminars. I wanted to learn as much as I could from some of the best minds in the US.” Jarin described himself as a Bobby Knight disciple.
Jarin’s achievements with the Ateneo juniors didn’t go unnoticed and he was invited to join Blue Eagles coach Norman Black’s staff in the seniors on a concurrent basis. He worked with Black for eight years on the Ateneo bench and the stint was marked by the Eagles’ five-peat as UAAP seniors champion. Jarin eventually joined Black’s coaching staff at Talk ‘N’ Text in the PBA and starting in the next PBA season, they will be reunited at Meralco.
As Jarin’s star began to shine brightly, it was inevitable that he would be tapped to work with the national youth teams by the SBP. Aside from the Batang Gilas U16 squad now playing at the FIBA U17 World Cup, Jarin is also coaching the national U18 team that will see action at the FIBA Asia U18 Championships in Doha on Aug. 19-28.
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Jarin said his approach to gather the best available players for the Batang Gilas program was to involve the top high school coaches in the trials. “I invited the five best players of every team in the UAAP, NCAA, Tiong Lian and other leagues,” he said. “I asked coaches Mike Oliver of FEU and Britt Reroma, then of San Beda, to join me. I think we brought in about 200 top players to try out so we knew they were the best high school players in the country.”
Jarin will cross over only Paul Desiderio, Jolo Go and Richard Escoto from the FIBA U17 World Cup to the FIBA Asia U18 Championships in Doha. The Philippines qualified to play in Doha after topping the SEABA U18 Championships with a 3-0 record in Sabah last May. Scores of the three wins were 98-35 over Indonesia, 93-76 over Malaysia and 124-63 over Singapore.
In Dubai, the Philippines is guaranteed to play at least four games. Batang Gilas made its debut in an 82-72 loss to Angola last Friday. The team battled Greece last night and will face the US tomorrow. Assuming the Philippines finishes last in Group A, it will take on the Group B topnotcher, either Australia or France, in the knockout round-of-16 on Tuesday. In Doha, the Philippines is guaranteed to play at least five games, two in the group stage against South Korea and Jordan and three in the second round against China, Qatar and India or Malaysia.