Source: The Brunei Times
The Brunei Barracudas have dropped head coach Ozell Wells (Above) in favour of his predecessor Bong Ramos who led the Bruneian side to a 6-9 record in last season’s ABL. Wells is now the assistant coach of the team. Pictures: BT file
Jason Thomas
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wells named new assistant
STILL in search of their first Asean Basketball League (ABL) win, the Brunei Barracudas yesterday dropped head coach Ozell Wells in favour of his predecessor Bong Ramos.
The Filipino led the team to a 6-9 record last year that saw them fall short off making the playoffs in the inaugural season, finishing fifth in the six-team tournament.
As its stands now, the Barracudas will have a tough time just finishing second from bottom.
With three losses in their opening three games, the Barracudas are last in the league though the Westports KL Dragons have also yet to record a win.
Though Ramos is now back in the hot-seat, Wells will still play an integral role in the set-up as an assistant coach. The American joins Wong Yee Chai, who is in his second year as a deputy.
“We had to make a change,” said Barracudas manager Benny Ang yesterday.
“We felt something was wrong with the team. We brought back the man responsible for our success last year, a man familiar with Brunei basketball and more importantly, the ABL. He wasn’t available at the start of the season but he recently became free.
“The best part is that coach Wells graciously accepted the offer to stay on as an assistant and we appreciate that greatly. He knows a lot about basketball and he has a lot to offer.
“Now for the first time the team will have one head coach and two assistants, and that is something that was always lacking. Now, we have coaches well placed in various positions to better communicate with the players and bring the team forward.
“Coach Bong accepted the offer yesterday (Tuesday) and he arrived today (Wednesday),” added Ang.
The team had its first training session under Ramos yesterday evening.
Ramos was previously assistant coach at the Philippine Basketball Association’s (PBA) Barangay Ginebra and Talk n’ Text working under ex-Philippines national team head coach Vincent ‘Chot’ Reyes in the latter.
Ramos made his name in the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) where he was named the 2003 Coach of the Year for guiding Aspac to a quadruple championship that same year.
He went on to become Indonesia’s national coach the same year.
The Barracudas will next take on Satria Muda BritAma in Jakarta on Sunday.The Brunei Times
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