The UST Growling Tigresses – the champion UST Growling Tigresses – are doing push-ups. The veterans like Brigette Santos. The rookies like Kayla Williams. No one was exempt. Except Eka Soriano. 

“Pagod ka na?” head coach Haydee Ong jokingly asks. Eka, a two-time UAAP champ, could only shake her head and smile. She is no longer on the UST roster, having used up all her college playing years. During her time of service, championships were won. Points were made. Ups were pushed. Now, she’s helping bridge the gap between how they did it and how the new batch of girls will continue to do it. The grind goes on.

The push-ups are the consequence of a flubbed lay-up in practice. When one misses, everyone pays for it. This policy goes both ways: when one makes a basket, everyone wins. They operate like a hive mind, ebbing and flowing as one unit. No one gets left behind. 

“We all go through the same stuff,” said Erinn McAlary, who’s playing in her second season for UST. Erinn had it good in her rookie year. It wasn’t easy – it never is – but it was good. She learned mental toughness from Eka and Kent Pastrana, was taught discipline by Coach Haydee and her staff, breathed rare air of a 14-0 sweep, and experienced winning a championship.

I talked to Erinn right after the team prayed the rosary – their ritual before the start of every practice. I was curious to know and understand what goes through the mind of someone who did all that and will get a shot to do it all over again.

“We have a target on our backs. Everyone’s gonna be coming at us,” she said.

The nerves are there, naturally and inescapably, but just like the dreaded push-ups at practice, they will just have to try to get through it together. Their struggles, while isolated and personal, are faced as a collective. It is by design, these prayer and push-up sessions, to strengthen the team bond both through hoping and coping. Of course, talking it through with her teammates and her coaches helps.

“They help calm me down,” said Erinn.

The life of a student-athlete, particularly one that was uprooted from Melbourne to live in Manila, is far from easy. Erinn will take all the help she can get, whether it’s the long soulful conversations or a four-minute A$AP Rocky banger (her go-to song at the moment) or a 10-minute meditation session on the bus ride to games. 

The way Erinn described their gameday habit, it made sense why UST played the way they do: a mix of grounded discipline and quiet fierceness. They close their eyes and mute Manila traffic. A meditation track plays on YouTube, offering words of affirmation. 

“It makes you lock in with your mindset,” Erinn said. “It helps with my nerves.”

It’s one thing to have a hive mind function efficiently; it’s another to help that shared consciousness find its center. That intentional way of doing things starts from the coaches. UST basketball is played best when they’re thinking straight and to do that, Coach Haydee reminds the players to “have a Dory mindset,” which, on the surface, means forget about the mistakes quickly. There’s also something to say about the optimism, regardless of odds, in how they play.

“Sometimes, I still get in my head when I’m not playing as good, but it’s definitely getting better. It’s something I do want to work on this season…just being able to snap out of it and focus on the next play,” Erinn said.

“It’s really hard for athletes just thinking about how to perform and stuff. Having hate from spectators just makes it harder. I feel like there should be more kindness to athletes from spectators and everyone because we’re already going through a lot mentally, so getting the extra hate is a lot as well. It makes it worse.”

At practice, I watched as the Growling Tigresses zoom, cut, hustle – all at game speed. Erinn has the green light to shoot. She moves with purpose, without any unnecessary movements. A clear mind can do that.

“Focus on what you can control. What you can’t control, just let it go, don’t focus on that. If you’re ever struggling with how you’re feeling, talk to your teammates and coaches,” she said.

“Don’t forget athletes are humans as well. We are just doing what we love. We shouldn’t be criticized for it. Just spread kindness.”

On one sequence, Erinn’s five complete a defensive stop and all five of them, like synchronized swimmers, sprint in full speed to the opposite side of the court. Erinn gets to the basket first, catches a lob, and finishes with a layup. No push-ups necessary. Everyone wins.

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(Photos by Jai Nebrada; Artwork by Melvin Rodas)