00:00I'm Coach Tab Baldwin, Head Coach of the Ateneo Blue Eagles.
00:06I'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, we're carrying immense grief, we're
01:04carrying immense remorse.
01:08But I've known since the moment that I was told that our boys had passed away that no
01:20matter the magnitude of our grief, there were two families that experienced a loss that
01:28was so much greater than ours.
01:32a loss that would stay with them in the most acute way for the remainder of their lives.
01:43Never again would Rene's mother and father and family, never again would Divine's family be
01:53able 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.
02:31But 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.
02:58But mostly, as a coach, I'm entrusted by you, the parents and the families, with first and
03:11foremost their well-being.
03:15And in this I feel I've failed.
03:22And I'm sorry, to 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.
03:48Up to the moment when we realized that whatever had happened, they were in dangerous water.
03:56And 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.
04:25And 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
04:48these two young men, were going to be in an even darker, more horrible place.
04:56At that moment, I felt I had failed.
05:02I failed as a leader.
05:04I felt I had failed as a coach.
05:07I certainly felt like I had failed 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
05:28them too.
05:31And that left me with really the only thing that I've been clinging to for the last several
05:40days.
05:43That as part of a community of faith to pray.
05:52To pray that the Lord embraces our two boys.
06:00To pray that the Lord gives peace, comfort, some sense of sanity to the Barbonia family and
06:14the Adili family.
06:16And I continue to beseech everybody that cared for, loves, loved Renee and Divine and their
06:34families.
06:36Please 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
07:03a community, as a basketball team, and as a nation, that we lean on the one place that will never
07:15let us down, and that is our Lord.
07:24Lord, I'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
08:05reach a better outcome.
08:12I wish peace for everybody.
08:14I wish comfort for everybody who is hurting, and I pray that we will all find that.
08:21God bless you all, God bless you all, and we are trying.
08:52God bless you all, God bless you all.
09:05You
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