In his first playing year for the Ateneo Blue Eaglets, he was ranked 106th out of 120 players in the individual statistics of the UAAP Juniors “I made it to the team, but I was averaging more turnovers than minutes inside the court.” The numbers served as a wake-up call and fired up Thirdy’s competitive spirit. “I worked my butt off every single day that summer. I’d join the pick-up game every day in our village, sleep for a bit, have breakfast, and leave for practice with the Juniors team from noon to 6pm.” His hard work didn’t go to unrewarded, because his ranking jumped from 106th to an impressive second, the very next season! “That’s when I started loving the grind. That’s when I started the discipline and fell in love with working hard, because I knew that it would get me somewhere.”

Trina’s Ateneo story also began in one summer. From learning how to shoot hoops with her dad on the street in front of their house in Pleasant Hill, California, choosing basketball over track and field, to that one fateful summer in the PH, the stars led Trina to Katipunan. She was in Manila for vacation when her cousin made her try-out for the Ateneo Women’s Basketball team, “I guess I made a really good impression on them because two months later, they got back to me asking if I was interested to play for Ateneo, and that they were going to give me a scholarship.” Although admittedly, Trina shares that her move to Manila was very, very impulsive. Her dad was all for it, but her mom was adamant about her moving so far away. Trina’s answer was simple: ‘You know Mom, I had a gut feeling that something was pulling me to go to the Philippines.’ So for me, I was like, ‘Okay, why not?

When asked if he still gets nervous before stepping onto the court, especially for such big games, Thirdy says “Definitely. But as soon as I step inside that court, all the nervousness goes away. I mean, it’s still there, but I guess you just have to get over the nerves, and also accept the fact the it’s just another basketball game.” Imbued with a true champion’s mentality, he treats each game with equal importance and puts all his attention on the task at hand instead of the hype, the crowd, and all the social media noise.

At the end of the day, Trina is thankful to have a great support system within the Women’s Basketball community, “The people that I’m surrounded with, they’re really, really supportive. They knew that, obviously, women’s basketball wasn’t getting the support that we wanted, but the people around us continue to motivate and inspire us, and they are just there for us knowing that we were all in the same position, too.”