Gilas Pilipinas U-18 Women have started their preparations for the upcoming 2026 FIBA Women’s U-18 Asia Cup SEABA Qualifiers under the guidance of Sandy Arespacochaga, who has been installed by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) as Gilas Pilipinas Youth Women head coach.
Arespacochaga is a multi-titled assistant coach in the UAAP and PBA. He has experience in Youth coaching as he led Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA U-19 Basketball World Cup in 2019. His selection is another step in the right direction for the SBP under the leadership of President Ricky Vargas, who has empowered the federation to aggressively invest more in women’s basketball.
Asked why he was the best fit for the team, Gilas Pilipinas Women Program Director Bacon Austria said, “First of all, he is a teacher. At this stage, he fits perfectly in shaping the girls’ future. More than winning, his focus is on developing the girls into better basketball players and better people. On the basketball aspect, Coach Sandy is no stranger to FIBA tournaments. He’s already coached Gilas Youth Men and assisted Gilas Men at the World Cup level.”
“For the assistant coaches, we asked the NU and UST high school programs to lend us one of their coaches to help Coach Sandy,” added Austria. “UST and NU have been dominating women’s high school competitions, and most of the talented players in that age group are with their programs already, so it made perfect sense to make sure they will have representation in the coaching staff.”
The 2026 FIBA Women’s U-18 Asia Cup SEABA Qualifiers will be hosted in Bacolod from June 2 to 6. However, the Philippines is already guaranteed a spot in the 2026 FIBA Women’s U-18 Asia Cup as they won Division B in 2024, which led to a promotion to the top tier.
“I’ve been a fan of women’s basketball, but I’ve never coached women’s basketball, so I’m really thankful for this opportunity,” said the coach. He went to work immediately with the idea of not just forming a good team for the tournament but having much bigger goals for the future.
“We formed the pool with the idea not just of forming the team for SEABA. We wanted to form a pool that included players whom we can help out and help elevate because we wanted to elevate women’s basketball as a whole,” he explained.
“We’ve welcomed a lot of players, even younger players. We had a couple of 14-year-olds, and the youngest was just 12. We’ve also opened our practices to women’s basketball coaches. If they want to join us, we’ll welcome them. If they have any questions, we’ll answer because we’re looking at this more than just preparing for a tournament.”
The team is still awaiting the arrival of two key players: Tiffany Reyes, who last played for Gilas in the FIBA U16 Women’s Asia Cup 2025, and Sophia Dignadice, who already suited up at the elite level after seeing action in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Qualifiers in France earlier this year.
“We’re relying on our communication with them. Since they cannot be physically in practice yet, the best that we can do is to meet with them online to just discuss what we’re doing. We’re going to send them videos of what we’re doing in practice,” Arespacochaga explained.
“With the situation, we cannot come up with a system that is too complicated within the timeframe and the limited practices we will have. So we’ll come up with things that make sense offensively and defensively.”
Reyes is scheduled to arrive in late May, while Dignadice will attempt to beat the buzzer and arrive just before the tournament starts.
