00:00I'm Coach Tab Baldwin, head coach of the Ateneo Blue Eagles.
00:05I'm here this morning to speak to the families of my two basketball players, Devina Dealey
00:12and Rene Barabonia.
00:16I've been asked to limit my comments this morning to four minutes, and in a situation
00:25in which I've been utterly lost for words, four minutes seems like an eternity, and yet
00:33if I had the opportunity to speak about Rene and Divine, I believe I could speak for hours.
00:46But they are gone, and we are left behind.
00:53In being left behind, we are carrying immense sorrow.
01:01We're carrying immense grief.
01:04We're carrying immense remorse.
01:08But I've known since the moment that I was told that our boys had passed away that no
01:19matter the magnitude of our grief, there were two families that experienced a loss that
01:28was so much greater than ours, and a loss that would stay with them in the most acute way
01:39for the remainder of their lives.
01:43Never again would Rene's mother and father and family, never again would Divine's family be
01:52able to be able to talk to their son or touch their son.
02:04Yes, as a coach, I lost my boys too.
02:10Never again would I be able to help them develop into the basketball player they wanted to be,
02:19to help them grow into the young man that they promised that they could be.
02:30But that's insignificant compared to what your families are experiencing.
02:40As a coach, we are entrusted with the growth of our basketball players, the development of these
02:53young men into future professionals.
02:56professionals, but mostly, as a coach, I'm entrusted by you, the parents and the families,
03:10with first and foremost their well-being.
03:15And in this I feel I've failed, and I'm sorry.
03:27To the depth of my being, I'm sorry.
03:35On that fateful day when we sent the players out for a routine training run in what we thought
03:42was shallow water, up to the moment when we realized that whatever had happened, they were
03:53in dangerous water, and we did everything that we could as coaches, as people responsible for that situation.
04:05The players themselves did everything they could to ensure that everybody arrived back on shore safely.
04:15And then we realized that we hadn't accomplished that.
04:24And in that moment, I experienced the descent into the darkest place imaginable.
04:38And yet I knew at the same time that good people, people that had done an amazing job raising these
04:48two young men, were going to be in an even darker, more horrible place.
04:57At that moment, I felt I had failed.
05:01I had failed as a leader, I felt I had failed as a coach, I certainly felt like I had
05:09failed as a friend to Divine and Renee.
05:17And when later I faced the team to try to be a leader in that moment, I felt that I
05:27failed them too.
05:31And that left me with really the only thing that I've been clinging to for the last several days.
05:43And that as part of a community of faith to pray, to pray that the Lord embraces our two boys,
05:58to pray that the Lord gives peace, comfort, some sense of sanity to...
06:12The Barbonia family and the Adili family.
06:16And I continue to beseech everybody that cared for, loves, loved Renee and Divine and their families.
06:35Please keep praying.
06:37Please keep praying.
06:41I think that my voice in prayer is hoarse now, but it will never be enough.
06:52So as we all try to move forward without Divine and Renee, I hope that in binding together, as a
07:03community, as a basketball team, and as a nation, that we lean on the one place that will never let
07:15us down.
07:16And that is our Lord.
07:19And that is our Lord.
07:24I'm so deeply sorry.
07:27And I'm so deeply sorry to not just the families, but everybody that feels let down, somehow betrayed.
07:42And I pray that we all find some pathway forward to come back to hope for the future, love for
07:53one another, and forgiveness for those of us who failed and tried so desperately hard to reach a better outcome.
08:11I wish peace for everybody.
08:14I wish comfort for everybody who is hurting.
08:19And I pray that we will all find that.
08:23God bless you all.
08:33And we are trying.
08:49You
Comments