Amid all the hardships in high school with UPIS, Aldous Torculas can now call himself a UAAP champion with the UP Fighting Maroons.
It’s a different feeling to win your first UAAP title with the school you’ve been in since the beginning.
That was the case for UP’s homegrown talent Aldous Torculas, who had major contributions to the State U's championship run in Season 87.
“It was a rollercoaster ride kasi andami naming ups and downs talaga as a team,” said Torculas on One News' Play by Play. “Kumbaga na-realize din namin na kailangan talaga naming like maging as one to achieve our goal.”
“From there, naging focused talaga kami sa sistema sa kung anong ginagawa namin kaya ayun nagbunga naman 'yung diskarte namin na ganun,” he added.
Torculas wasn’t with the team yet when the Fighting Maroons won the Season 84 crown.
But after two Finals heartbreaks in Season 85 and 86, the athletic forward can finally call himself a champion.
Torculas, who spent his high school years with UPIS, also had to go through a one-win season during his only year with the Junior Maroons.
And he says his high school experience made winning the Season 87 title even sweeter.
“Kung titignan ko ‘yung sarili ko, sa high school ano lang ako eh, one win lang ‘yung record ko nung high school as in kasi isang beses lang ako naglaro nung high school then nagkapandemic then college na ‘yung sunod ko,” said Torculas.
“Sobrang nakakatuwa lang kasi from one win, ngayon champion na.”
With plenty of years still ahead of him, Torculas is looking forward to developing his game even further to help the Fighting Maroons secure back-to-back titles in Season 88.
“Siyempre more work pa. Maraming pang kailangang iimprove sa sarili ko,” Torculas emphasized
“Every year naman nagbabago ‘yung role, nagbabago ‘yung development ng players, so tignan natin kung anong magiging role ko anong magagawa ko para sa team sa next season,” he added.