Racela rivalry: ‘Mixed emotions’ for Olsen after FEU win over Nash, Adamson

MANILA, Philippines – Olsen and Nash Racela faced off in the UAAP stage for the first time in their coaching careers on Tuesday, April 7 as head coaches of the FEU Tamaraws and the Adamson Soaring Falcons, respectively.

The Tamaraws completed a 66-65 escape act against the Soaring Falcons, thanks to the game-winning triple of RJ Abarrientos with just 9 seconds remaining.

And for Olsen, the thrilling one-point win came off as bittersweet as it dealt his younger brother Nash another heartbreaking loss in Season 84.

“Mixed emotions for me,” said Olsen of FEU’s victory.

“I’m happy with the win, but when the final buzzer sounded and we were up and we already won, walking to the other side of the court I saw my brother so it’s quite of mixed emotions.”

“But you know, one team had to win and one team had to lose. That’s really how it goes,” he continued.

The Racela brothers already clashed numerous times in the past as Olsen serves as an assistant coach for Barangay Ginebra, while Nash was a former head coach of TNT and Blackwater in the PBA.

Interestingly, before Olsen took on the FEU coaching job in 2017, it was Nash who handled the boys from Morayta from 2013 to 2016.

Nash, who led the Tamaraws to a UAAP championship in Season 78, then became part of Olsen’s coaching staff in FEU from 2018 to 2019, before being appointed as head coach of Adamson in 2021.

However, for Nash, despite their long history as coaches, he admitted he is not really familiar with Olsen’s style of coaching and he believes that both of them were surprised with how they called the shots against each other in their first ever matchup in the UAAP.

“To be honest, we don’t know [each other’s style] when it comes to coaching,” said Nash.

“We have a little bit of an idea of what each other would do, but today I think both of us were surprised with how the other coached.”

Still, Nash believes that he and his brother Olsen brought the best out of each other in what he considered as one of the best games of the season thus far.

“From the beginning, I always said that when you’re familiar with each other, it will just bring out the best in both of you,” said Nash.

“And I think today we just did that,” he added. – Rappler.com