Nico Salva has been part of many teams throughout his basketball career.
During his time at San Beda, Salva shared the court with the likes of Ford Arao, Arth Dela Cruz, and Fonzo Gotladera, though he fell short of a championship after facing Ryan Buenafe’s San Sebastian squad.
His stay at Ateneo, however, became legendary. Alongside Buenafe, Justin Chua, Kirk Long, Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Nonoy Baclao, and, later on, Greg Slaughter and Kiefer Ravena, Salva became one of a select group of UAAP athletes to win five championships in his five-year stay.
Salva also spent nine years in the professional ranks, making stops with Barangay Ginebra and Meralco. He later returned to Ateneo, where he served as head trainer of the Blue Eagles’ 3×3 basketball program for the past two years.
Now serving as the team manager of the Ateneo Blue Eagles, Salva believes the bond within this current batch is unlike anything he has seen before.
“I’ve never seen a team this bonded, really close, and that’s gonna continue to grow throughout the season,” said Salva.
“Their perseverance that they do every single day really reflected in the end game today.”
Following the Dipaculao, Aurora incident last June 8 that claimed the lives of Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili, the Blue Eagles’ basketball program came under heavy scrutiny, with multiple bans and suspensions meted out to their coaching staff.
With this — carrying the loss of their fallen teammates, having witnessed the tragedy with their own eyes, and having to deal with a changing staff — the Blue Eagles are in dire need of a stable leader behind the scenes.
Though Salva’s appointment is still in its infancy, he claims to have seen how much the players have stuck through together and brought their personal resiliency and translated it on the court, as evident in their 81-78 victory over College of Saint Benilde on Sunday.
“‘Yung character nila is very persevering, you can see that, especially in the second half when the game was close,” added Salva, who replaced a great manager in Epok Quimpo in the wake of the school’s investigation into the Aurora tragedy.
“We expect them to play harder, more bonded as a team, even though you can already see that from now.”
This perseverance is one that he hopes his boys continue to bring with them come UAAP Season 89.
