MANILA, Philippines — Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles head coach Tab Baldwin resigned from his position following the drowning of his players Rene Baterbonia, 18, and Divine Adili, 21, in a training activity in Dipaculao Beach, Aurora last week.
In a press briefing Monday, Ateneo president Fr. Roberto Yap S.J. said that the university accepted Baldwin's resignation.
"I also must inform everyone that the university has accepted the resignation of head coach Thomas Anthony "Tab" Baldwin effective immediately. We thank him for the years of service for the Blue Eagles," said Yap.
Baldwin, who also handled the Gilas Pilipinas program and served as consultant for the TNT franchise in the PBA, led the Blue Eagles to four UAAP men's basketball championships including a three-peat from Season 80 to 82 (2017 to 2019).
The 68-year-old renowned international Kiwi-American coach started coaching the Blue Eagles in 2016 and just signed a supposed 3-year extension last year.
That will not be the case anymore as Ateneo looks to overhaul not just the leadership of its basketball program but review its entire sports programs.
"But as we enter a period of deep institutional review, a change in leadership is necessary to ensure the full integrity of our sports programs and safety protocols governing them," said Yap.
"We must look inward, examine our systems and rebuild the structures of our athletic programs so that our fields and playing courts will be places where dreams are nurtured not broken."
Breaking his silence last Friday, an emotional Baldwin said that the Blue Eagles were doing a 'routine training run' in 'what we thought was shallow water' in Dipaculao beach.
When the players were reportedly swept by the current, Baldwin said that everyone on the team did everything they could to bring back everyone to the shore but they lost Baterbonia and Adili.
Rescuers found Baterbonia and Adili's bodies but it was all too late.
Last Wednesday, the Aurora Provincial Police Office, based on a post-mortem examination certificate, stated that Baterbonia and Adili died of asphyxia by drowning.
Still, many people held Baldwin responsible for his players' deaths, as he was the head coach who ordered the training in an uncontrolled environment which was the sea.
In the aforementioned video, Baldwin apologized for the death of his players, saying he failed as a coach, leader, and friend to Baterbonia and Adili.
"In that moment (when we lost Baterbonia and Adili), I experienced the descent into the darkest place imaginable. And yet I knew at the same time that good people, people that had done an amazing job raising these two young men, were going to be in an even darker, more horrible place," said Baldwin.
"At that moment, I felt I had failed. I failed as a leader. I felt I had failed as a coach. I certainly felt like I had failed as a friend to Divine and Rene. And when later I faced the team to try to be a leader in that moment, I felt that I failed them too."
