Pampanga Vice Governor and current Converge FiberXers coach Dennis “Delta” Pineda is no stranger to multi-titled mentor Yeng Guiao of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
Like Pineda, who comes from a family of old politician, Guiao also has his pedigree in public service in the province.
Yeng’s dad, Bren Guiao, was a former Governor of Pampanga from 1986 to 1995 and it didn’t take long that the veteran coach decided to enter the political scene and followed the footsteps of his father. He began to work in public service starting 2001 as a Provincial Board Member, then went on to become Vice Governor of Pampanga and later on as Representative of the First District of the province until 2013.
In juggling his works as a public servant and as a basketball coach, the younger Guiao had seen Delta, son of Bong and Lilia Pineda, having similar interests in politics and basketball.
Like Guiao, the young Pineda also pursued coaching and the veteran bench tactician had seen it first hand when he helped develop players making it to the big-time basketball scene, among those players include former Most Valuable Player Arwind Santos, Jayson Castro, Calvin Abueva, Ian Sangalang and Ronald Pascual.
Except for Pascual, whose PBA career went short-lived, all players mentioned came under the Pineda stable and they flourished in the big league, becoming part of champion teams aside from representing the national men’s basketball teams on separate occassions.
“He’s really committed on what he’s doing,” said Guiao on Pineda. “That’s what I’ve seen when he developed players in Pampanga and helped made them to become stars in the PBA. Malaki ang contribution niya doon. Tapos, nagko-coach rin siya. Mahilig rin talaga.”
Guiao wasn’t surprised to see Pineda making it to the local coaching circle as he has been involved in the collegiate circuit for several years now. But what surprised the seven-time PBA champion coach was when the latter decided to take his knowledge to the next level.
“Hindi ako surprised na nagko-coach siya, but nagulat ako that he decided to coach in the PBA,” said Guiao. “While alam ko naman na marunong siyang mag-coach, hindi ako sure if his experience or knowledge would be enough to compete against the best local mentors in the league.”
“But if there’s one good thing about the character of this family, it’s their dedication and their commitment. Kapag may pinasok silang isang bagay, talagang binubuhusan nila ng attention, ng resources and Vice Gov Delta had done that so far for Converge.”
So how would Guiao rank the newcomer coach so far?
“Masyado pang maaga eh, but right now, you could see, yung Converge, nagkakaroon na rin ng porma and you could tell that the way they built up the team. Even in coaching, you can see that Vice Gov Delta is really committed,” said Guiao. “He brought in not just one, but two Serbian coaches who had coached not just in the professional level, but world-class competitions. Doon mo makikita na seryoso talaga si Vice Gov Delta na matuto. As long as he’s really committed and he has the time and effort, I’m sure there won’t be a problem on his continues improvement.”
On Sunday night, Pineda and his FiberXers faced an acid test battling defending champion San Miguel Beer, but fell short against the more experienced Beermen, 90-96, as Converge absorbed its second loss in five games this conference.
