Leo Austria bags 4th PBA Coach of the Year Award

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

For the fourth time in the last 5 PBA seasons, San Miguel Beermen’s chief tactician, coach Leo Austria, will be receiving another PBA Coach of the Year Award.

Austria edged out Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Tim Cone for the Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan trophy that will be given in the upcoming PBA Press Corps soon after the enhanced community quarantine will be lifted.

With Austria besting out Cone, he now moves to solo second spot with the most Coach of the Year Awards, breaking the tie among him, Cone, and Ryan Gegorio.

Former Gilas and Talk N’ Text head coach Chot Reyes still holds the most Coach of the Year awards with five after an illustrious run with TNT in the mid 2000’s.

Making the needed adjustments through every tough finals they were in, Austria led the Beermen to a historic five-straight Philippine Cup titles and a back-to-back championship run last season.

The prized SMB head coach captured the award three straight times from 2015 to 2017 but his streak was broken by Magnolia’s current head coach, Chito Victolero, after receiving the award last 2018.