A 16-year PBA veteran big man with a Best Player of the Conference award and a lot of championship experience: these are just some of the credentials of the new assistant coach of the College of Saint Benilde, Ali Peek. He retired from PBA in 2014, but for this Filipino-American tower, basketball never stops.
He has served as commentator for games since his retirement but recently, he added another title to his post-PBA career. Peek can now be spotted on the Saint Benilde bench in the NCAA helping neophyte coach TY Tang train their big men.
“I’m here for the big guys, and it’s very challenging because it’s a lot different from the pros. You got to have more patience,” the 42-year-old coach said.
Peek shared that he had clinched the job after Tang and assistant coach Charles Tiu asked for his help and he gladly obliged. This is his first coaching job in his career, and he admitted to the challenges that he will face as he coaches a rebuilding collegiate team with very young players.
“With the pros, you just tell them once or twice and they already understand it. But these guys, it’s all about teaching and making sure they learn in the team.
“Sometimes, when they get it, the next day it’s almost like they forgot. You have to remind them. I think that’s the most challenging part,” Peek shared.
Peek also talked about their recruitment game and the difficulty of acquiring quality players given Saint Benilde’s lackluster track record.
“We’re pretty happy with the recruiting process we had a few months ago but even that is hard because you’re constantly selling the job, constantly convincing athletes that you really want to come to your school,” Saint Benilde’s big man coach said.
“It’s even harder when the record doesn’t look so good. So part of the sell is that we are rebuilding, we got a new coaching staff.”
Saint Benilde recently got a facelift as they acquired former PBA player TY Tang to be the head coach of the Blazers. This came after tallying a horrid 1-17 record last season under Gabby Velasco’s headship.
Tang is thankful for Peek, because aside from big-man wisdom, his mere presence is an ego boost.
“Ali has been tremendous especially with the bigs giving all those moves down there especially on defense and offense.
“Other than that, just being present in our practices every single day. A sixteen-year pro, a veteran of the league, has been a champion for so many times, that’s just a lot of confidence and inspiration for these kids,” Tang beamed.
Peek has been with the team for seven months already and has focused on the development of Edward Dixon, Kendrix Belgica, and Cameroonian Clement Leutcheu.
“Those three guys are mainly the inside guys of our team and there’s a lot of development that needs to be made. It’s gonna take time. We gotta develop these guys,” Peek explained.
Despite the heavy desire to immediately turn things around for the Blazers, Peek knows that they have to be patient.
“I’ve come from losing teams in the pros and have also been part of the rebuilding process. Let me tell you that the rebuilding process is not easy. It’s a painstaking process and it takes a lot of time,” the 6-foot-4 coach said.
Peek is a newbie coach, but so far he is having a great time being on the strategy side of basketball.
“I really enjoy the job. Seeing the kids everyday, watching them. I just see a little bit of myself in them when I was at that stage of my life. It’s challenging, it’s frustrating at times but it all comes with the territory.”
Aside from being a first-time coach, this is also Peek’s first taste of Philippine college basketball. So far, he is liking the vibe of the oldest athletic association in the nation.
“It’s fun, you hear the drums! We didn’t have drums in the PBA unless you got to the playoffs so this is really fun and the student body, and how the students and the alumni get involved,” Peek said with a smile.
“It’s a really good atmosphere.”
Currently, Saint Benilde have a 1-1 record, and hopefully with Ali Peek on their side, they can conquer the mountain that is NCAA.
– BY: Danine Cruz
