Ateneo Blue Eagles players, Divine Adili, 21, and Rene Baterbonia, 19, drowned during a team-building swimming exercise in Dipaculao, Aurora, on Monday, the Ateneo de Manila University confirmed. <\/p>\n
Efi Kalogirou, the estranged wife of basketball coach Tab Baldwin. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Local police said \u201cinitial findings indicate that the victims were swimming when they were reportedly carried by a strong current into deeper waters\u201d. <\/p>\n
The exercise was part of a military-style bootcamp designed to \u201cbreak the men\u201d, according to former Blue Eagles players.<\/p>\n
Baldwin himself released a video statement 24 hours earlier through the university\u2019s social media account, giving his account of what happened. <\/p>\n
He said staff sent players into what they thought was shallow water, but as soon as \u201cwe realised … they were in dangerous water\u201d, coaches and players did everything to try to get everyone back safely. <\/p>\n
When it became clear \u201cwe hadn\u2019t accomplished that\u201d, Baldwin said he descended \u201cinto the darkest place imaginable\u201d. <\/p>\n
Kalogirou says her statement is in response to Baldwin\u2019s message. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make sure that he doesn\u2019t represent me or my kids,\u201d Kalogirou said. <\/p>\n
Kalogirou\u2019s daughter Giota, supported her mother\u2019s statement with her own via social media. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy Mom BEGGED them to assign him into a different team with adults away from university, away from minors and they not only ignored her but made her life living hell for months. Keep asking questions,\u201d Giota Kalogirou wrote on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n
In the Philippines, a minor is under the age of 18.<\/p>\n
Tab Baldwin during his time as Philippines coach shaking hands with Tall Blacks players after an Olympics qualifying game in 2016. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
One of the victims\u2019 families had earlier spoken out about the nature of the training exercise. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf they had told us about this kind of training, I would never have allowed my son to go,\u201d Baterbonia\u2019s mother Rovelyn said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy child is not a soldier. Basketball training should be in the court, not in the sea.\u201d <\/p>\n
The university has categorically denied social media claims that players trained with ankle weights in the sea, and local authorities have ruled out foul play, describing the deaths as \u201cpurely accidental\u201d. <\/p>\n
The Herald has contacted Ateneo University for comment on Kalogirou\u2019s new claims.<\/p>\n
A lawyer acting for the Baterbonia family, who is seeking an order preventing Baldwin from leaving the country, has said: \u201cWe are not saying that he has any liability here\u201d. <\/p>\n
The Department of Justice is investigating the deaths, while a separate inquiry into the university\u2019s athletic programme and its safety standards is underway. <\/p>\n
Baldwin, who coached the Tall Blacks to a historic fourth place at the 2002 world championships was also inducted into the NZ Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ateneo Blue Eagles players, Divine Adili, 21, and Rene Baterbonia, 19, drowned during a team-building swimming exercise in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[665,240128,61583,26568,9218,8136,1061,2562,1320,6179,240129,26674,240127,2740,16718,10055,685,111,139,69,1118,4291,10702,19098,213,46687,30638,1361,8812,1528,8222,33210,686,540,1842],"class_list":["post-476631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-around","tag-ateneo","tag-baldwin","tag-basketball","tag-before","tag-blacks","tag-children","tag-claims","tag-coach","tag-died","tag-drownings","tag-estranged","tag-extall","tag-former","tag-him","tag-ignored","tag-last","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-philippines","tag-players","tag-safe","tag-sports","tag-tab","tag-tall","tag-that","tag-training","tag-university","tag-warned","tag-warnings","tag-week","tag-where","tag-wife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}