Ateneo de Manila University women’s basketball team head coach Erika Dy announced her resignation as mentor of the Lady Eagles Friday.
In a note she published on her Facebook entitled “No Excuses. Know Heart”, Dy wrote she has already made a commitment prior to the start of the UAAP Season 78 women’s basketball tournament which shall force her to discontinue coaching.
“Sadly, everything great must at one point come to an end. The job I said yes to two years ago and became so fond of, is the same job I have to say goodbye to today. I wrote my resignation letter this afternoon and will be turning it in by tomorrow. It was a decision I made even before the season started as I made a commitment that will no longer allow me to coach with my whole heart. And to me, it’s either you do this job with your whole heart or you don’t do it at all,” Dy wrote.
Dy was head coach of the Lady Eagle for three years, helping the squad to a championship stint in Season 78 where it survived five do-or-die games to put up one of the more memorable runs in recent tournament history.
“It’s very hard for a leader to leave troops behind not knowing if they will be passed on to someone who will care for them the same way you did. I consider myself very lucky that this is not a concern I need be worry about. I can sleep well at night with my decision to call it quits because I know a very good coach is coming in for them. Plus, if history serves us well, the ALE wins championships after I leave the team. It happened when I left as player and I am hoping it will happen again as I leave as a coach.”
Dy thanked the Ateneo community for its support and cherished the relationships she fostered with her team.
“At the end of every journey, what matters most are the relationships we both lost and made on the way. With the demands of this job, many of my relationships had to be sacrificed. The first to feel the hit would naturally be your family. Before I started coaching, I often played golf with my parents in the morning. Our early morning training sessions didn’t allow me to continue with this. Out of town trips with the family also had to take a back seat. Get together dinners with friends were out of the picture as I preferred to stay at home to work on our practice plan and get enough sleep for the early start the following day. But my parents supported me and went to my games even if basketball was the reason why my time with them was being cut short. My friends were also there to support me coach, despite the many times I failed to join them for a meal. Then there were those who vanished into thin air because I didn’t make an effort to see them and vice versa. Truly, people will come and go during our lifetime and it is very important to choose those you stick with wisely. During struggles like coaching a college basketball team, they are weeded out for you, and I am very thankful for that,” Dy added.
“Not all are on the losing end of this. Many of my relationships also began and blossomed during my coaching years. Of course, these are relationships with team members who I devoted most of my time to. The journey will end, but the friends we made along the way are here to stay forever. When we look back at our story ten years from now, it’s not so much the W’s and L’s that will matter – yes they are memories we can always talk about over and over again when we have our reunions. However, the story re-telling are but tools to maintain and even strengthen the relationships we built during the past two years when we worked together as a team. The people who not only made you cry and laugh, but cried and laughed with you will be the ones by your side no matter what – I found them in my teams. They will always be family to me.”
Moving forward, Coach Dy is set to assume Ateneo’s board of representatives seat in the UAAP together with new Ateneo Athletics Office head Emmanuel Fernandez. Former Athletics Office head Mr. Ricardo Palou, after serving the university for ten years, will now focus on Sports Vision, the company behind the Shakey’s V-League and the Spikers’ Turf.
The Ateneo is now looking for a replacement for Erika Dy as head coach for Ateneo’s Women’s Basketball Team. The announcement is set to be made early 2016.
