MANILA, Philippines – The Ateneo Blue Eagles came to Dipaculao, Aurora, for a team building with hopes of strengthening their bond as they geared up for UAAP Season 89.

After missing the Final Four in the last two seasons, Ateneo looked like a team to watch this time, with highly touted rookies Rene Baterbonia and Kieffer Alas and one-and-done talents EJ Kapihe and Travis Roberts joining key holdovers Jared Bahay, Divine Adili, Shawn Tuano, Ian Espinosa, Waki Espina, and Andrew Bongo.

But the Aurora trip turned tragic as Baterbonia, an incoming rookie, and Adili, a Nigerian foreign student-athlete, died from drowning during one of their activities.

A week after the incident, Alas and Sam Reyes appeared on the Let’s Talk with Pia Hontiveros podcast to shed light on the events leading up to their teammates’ deaths.

Who were there?

The team building was supervised by head coach Tab Baldwin, assistant coaches Sandro Soriano, Dean Castaño, and Jon Jacinto, strength and conditioning coach CJ Elumba, physical therapist Jerick Rueca, and two student managers.

Players who made the trip to Aurora include Alas, Reyes, Baterbonia, Adili, Bahay, Tuano, Espinosa, Espina, Bongo, Kapihe, Roberts, Sultan Baruwa, Logan Baltazar, Kyle Gamber, Grayson Rogers, Matt de Luna, Malcolm Tyler, Jay-M Leal, Alden Cainglet, and Michael Asoro. 

Timeline

Saturday, June 6

• Ateneo wins its first game in the FilOil EcoOil Preseason Cup.
  • The Blue Eagles coast to a 72-52 victory over the Adamson Soaring Falcons.
  • Top performers include Roberts (17 points, 3 rebounds), Espina (9 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals), Alas (9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists), and Bahay (7 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds).
  • Baterbonia watches the game from the sidelines two days after arriving in Manila on June 4.
  • Adili does not play.

Sunday, June 7

• The team leaves for Aurora.
• On the afternoon of their arrival, the players clean debris from the beach in preparation for the activities the following day. This is also the time when the photo showing Baterbonia writing his name in the sand is taken.
• The players take part in a group session where they’re asked to introduce themselves, say a fun fact about themselves, and practice the Ateneo hymn “A Song for Mary.”
  • Baterbonia’s fun fact is that he likes watching mukbang videos.
• Players gather for dinner.
• Baldwin announces that the players need to give up their phones, before the team calls it a night.

Monday, June 8

• The players are awakened in the wee hours by a blaring siren, marking the start of the day’s activities.
  • Since there are no clocks around and the players surrendered their phones, they’re unaware of the time.
• Players go for a morning run.
  • Alas: “Everyone has to run four kilometers and we combined the times and it should be like under a certain time. I’m not sure how much. We passed with flying colors. We were happy and celebrating.”
• The team prepares breakfast.
  • Reyes: “Us vets were assigned to cook breakfast meals and the rookies were assigned to fix the table.”
• The players are given a break at around 8 am.
  • Alas takes a nap. Reyes swims, finding the water shallow.
• Players enjoy a game of dodgeball.
  • Alas: “It was good actually. Everyone was enjoying. It was pretty competitive.”
• Team gathers for lunch.
• A team water activity starts.
  • The players are instructed to line up in thigh-deep water parallel to the shore for an exercise led by Castaño.
  • Alas: “It was actually pretty simple, supposed to be like a 10-minute thing.”
  • The 6-foot-7 Kapihe and 6-foot-10 Tyler are the farthest from the shore followed by Reyes, Baterbonia, Alas, and Leal. Adili is somewhere in the middle of the line because he is a non-swimmer.
• The first wave hits. Water level rises from thigh to the chest.
  • Players do not think much of the first wave that hit them, even as Reyes describes it as “bigger than us.”
  • Reyes: “At first, we were having fun laughing on the first wave.”
• Waves crash in succession.
  • Things take a serious turn after the second wave as the players hear Gamber screaming for help.
  • Alas on Gamber: “The weird thing was we were all laughing because we thought he was just joking.”
  • Reyes: “During the first wave, we were riding the wave and we didn’t realize that we were being pulled away. Then when the second wave came, that was when we realized that [something was wrong].”
  • Panic ensues after the third wave as players get pulled away farther from the shore.
  • Reyes remembers being with Bongo: “When we were able to touch sand, we looked back and we saw that our other teammates were still having problems. We swam back to help. I heard Sultan, the other [foreign student-athlete], screaming for help. He was near so I went to him first. I was trying to drag him near shore. When I saw that others were helping him already, I looked at Malcolm because Malcolm was with Ian. We knew that Ian doesn’t know how to swim so Ian was having a hard time.”
  • Alas is with Adili, Leal, and Kapihe: “Me, Jay-M, and Divine, we were all depending on EJ because we knew he is a great swimmer. I was on the shoulder, Divine was on the shoulder, then Jay-M was in front of him. We were like that for like a solid 20 seconds. EJ pushed up closer to the shore. It worked for a bit then it just kept bringing me and Jay-M back. Jay-M and I were bear-hugging each other to try and float but it wasn’t working, we just went down and down and down. We were under for around more than 10 seconds and we just let go of each other. When I went up for some air… I was so far from everybody.”
  • Reyes tries to help Tyler in keeping Espinosa afloat, but falls into “total panic” as he fears for his life, having swallowed a significant amount of water. 
  • Alas and Reyes both accept their fate that they are going to die. The two alternate floating and swimming before they find each other and help one another reach the shore despite both suffering from cramps.
• Reyes, Alas, Espinosa, and Leal are among the last players to return to land.
  • Alas: “Coach Jon had a swim ring, so [he and Ian] shared it. Someone threw a volleyball to Jay-M. He used it as a floaty to make it back.”
• The team realizes Baterbonia and Adili are missing.
  • Reyes says the last time he saw 6-foot-4 Baterbonia was when they were still “having fun”: “I lost sight of him when we were panicking already.”
  • Alas and Reyes saw Adili for the last time when the 6-foot-10 Nigerian was with Kapihe.
  • Reyes: “EJ was saving people, and when he got tired, he went back to shore, rest for a bit, and he swam back out.”
  • Alas: “[EJ] was trying to save Divine.”
• Baternonia is found unconscious.
  • Reyes: “When we saw Rene, it was us who carried him out of the water, not the first responders. They didn’t help. They were just spectating, they were just watching us.”
  • Alas: “There was one guy who had his phone out. I was wondering why. I couldn’t say anything. Coach Sandro and I, we couldn’t really focus with what’s happening, we were really overwhelmed. I saw it with my eyes that he was just filming. I’m pretty sure there was a photo of [Rene] in the ambulance or him getting dragged out in a stretcher, I’m pretty sure that was him.”
  • Baterbonia receives cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from Rueca.
  • A medical personnel tells Rueca to stop the CPR so Baterbonia could be transferred to an ambulance and taken to the Aurora Memorial Hospital. 
• Adili is being retrieved from the water by several teammates just as the ambulance carrying Baterbonia is leaving.
  •  Alas: “Me and coach Sandro ran to the ambulance telling them to stop. I don’t think they heard us. Me and coach Sandro walked back, we saw almost 15 people carrying Divine. I was just there, I couldn’t grasp understand what was happening. I was just like staring. It was too hard.”
  • A police vehicle later brings Adili to the same hospital.
• At around 5 pm, the players get their phones back and the coaches tell them to inform only their parents or guardians about the incident.
  • Reyes: “After the tragedy, the coaches told us not to tell anyone about what happened so that they could inform the parents [of Rene and Divine] first. They wanted to inform the parents first before they see it on social media.”
  • Some of the players’ parents travel to Aurora to be there for their children.
• Ateneo announces the deaths of Baterbonia and Adili at 7 pm through their social media accounts.
• The rest of the players spend the night in Aurora as they grapple with the harrowing fact that they lost two teammates.
  • Reyes: “During that night, when we were still in Aurora, it was already 12 am, I tried to sleep and then I would see his (Baterbonia) face. Like when I was carrying him, I saw his face. When I tried to sleep, I would see his face. I slept for a bit, I woke up suddenly around 3 am and I was in disbelief because we were roommates, Rene and Divine. I would like see them in their beds, like the last time I saw them. I just went out to take a breath. I was just wandering, walking aimlessly. I was thinking that this is just a bad dream and I have to take wake up from it. Waki’s mom went up to me and then we just started talking about what happened and it kind of eased the burden of guilt and sadness. I was able to talk to her. After a few minutes, she told me to sleep again. I slept a little.”

Tuesday, June 9

• The team returns to Manila.
• From Aurora Memorial Hospital, the remains of Baterbonia and Adili are transported to Arlington Memorial Chapels in Quezon City.

– Rappler.com