BLACKWATER team owner Dioceldo Sy had seen how Patrick Aquino grew in the local basketball circuit.

From an average player who always finds himself stumbling and falling while making his way to the basket while playing for the Blu Detergent team in the PBL from the late 1990s to early 2000s, Aquino didn’t have much success playing.

“I advised him to concentrate on coaching,” Sy said during the thanksgiving lunch for the members of the gold-medal winning Gilas Pilipinas women’s basketball team at the Sha Tin Courtyard in Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City.

“So when we put up a PBL team, we delegated him as coach, and immediately, he was able to make his mark and our women’s team became the most successful squad in the amateur tournament.”

True enough, Sy’s Ever Bilena squad were back-to-back champions in 1998 and 1999 in the WPBL, a women’s league under the PBL, then headed by Commissioner Joseller “Yeng” Guiao.

When the league was revived in 2008, it was Ever Bilena which once again ruled the tournament.

With his group’s winning ways in the local women’s basketball circuit, the SM Group of Companies approached Sy to take over the National University Lady Bulldogs program, with Aquino leading the team’s think tank.

“I think NU was at the bottom of the standings when we took over, they were sixth if I’m not mistaken,” Sy added. “Then we started winning.”

From 2014 to 2019, the Lady Bulldogs went on to play six perfect seasons and kept an immaculate record of 96-0 — a record in local women’s basketball.

The record for the longest streak in women’s basketball was posted by the University of Connecticut — UConn Huskies — which saw their string of victories ended by Villanova early this year in the Women’s NCAA in the United States.

Aquino has stepped down as NU coach and taking over is his longtime deputy and former teammate, Aris Dimunahan, who’ll have a bigger shoes to fill as new mentor of the Lady Bulldogs.

Patrick Henry, who was once considered to become head coach of the UP Fighting Maroons before the UAAP season started, didn’t land a dream job of coaching his alma mater, but he was able to continue his winning ways in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games as he won his second gold medal as he led the Gilas women’s team in defending the championship.

Three years after ending the Philippine women’s team’s drought in the SEA Games, our cagebelles are now back-to-back champions and setting the standard in the region.

Gilas Pilipinas has remained in Level 1 of FIBA Asia, and Aquino will have to work full-time to keep the team’s status. He’s been delegated as program director as well, recruiting Fil-foreign players and even strengthening our grassroots program by tapping Pinays based in the US, who are 16 years old and below to secure a Philippine passport this early.

These young cagebelles will get an opportunity to train here for our 16 and under squad.

After creating history in NU and the Gilas Pilipinas women’s team, Aquino is also trying to bring his winning ways to the youth level, which will become the breeding ground for the women’s side in the future and continue a seamless winning program.

What a journey it has been from this average player, who’s become the hottest coach in Philippine basketball. And the road seems to be long and promising with nothing but a brighter future in sight.

Count the Blackwater 3x3 team, which will be put up in the near future, to be coached by Aquino. But that’s another story.