Pat Aquino continues to intensify Gilas Women’s recruitment program

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Even if it’s still the off-season, Gilas Pilipinas Women’s team’s head coach Patrick Aquino is still busy filling up the missing pieces in making sure they have a complete roster.

With the ultimate goal of further improving the national team’s program, coach Aquino and the rest of his coaching staff decided to intensify their recruitment system to build a stronger squad for the future tournaments.

Intensifying their recruitment system means going overseas, coach Aquino and the Gilas program are already eyeing several Filipina-American players to suit up for the national team.

Coach Aquino is currently working hand-in-hand with United States-based coach Cris Gopez, who happens to be Alex Cabagnot’s cousin, in building a foundation for the Fil-Am National Select program.

“They were introduced to me by Fil-Am National Select headed by coach Cris. He conducts basketball camps, and these players are good enough for us to look. I went there last March and saw some of them,” Aquino told Spin.ph in an interview.

According to coach Aquino, 13 young and promising US-based Fil-Am players were already tapped by their program and already showed interest in playing for Gilas.

“I did already reach out to them and we can tap them soonest as long as they have their Philippine passports already,” coach Aquino added.