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Rodericko Cesar Escueta Racela, also known as Olsen Racela, (born November 1, 1970) is the head coach of the FEU Tamaraws men's basketball team.[1] He is also currently an assistant coach of the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). He is a retired PBA player and is considered to be one of the best point guards who ever played in the league. He was also a notable member of the Philippine national basketball team on many occasions.

Olsen Racela

FEU Tamaraws
Position	Head coach
League	UAAP
Personal information
Born	(1970-11-01) November 1, 1970 (age 52) Quezon City, Philippines
Nationality	Filipino
Listed height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Listed weight	165 lb (75 kg)
Career information
College	Ateneo de Manila University
PBA draft	1993 Round: 2 / Pick: 12th overall
Selected by the Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs
Playing career	1993–2011
Position	Point guard
Number	17
Career history
As player:
1993–1996	Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs
1997–2011	San Miguel Beermen
As coach:
2011–2013	Petron Blaze Boosters (Head coach / assistant coach)
2013–2014	San Mig Coffee Mixers (assistant)
2014–present	Barangay Ginebra San Miguel (assistant)
2016–present	FEU Tamaraws
Career highlights and awards
As Player: 9× PBA champion (1993 All-Filipino, 1994 Commissioner's, 1999 Commissioner's, 1999 Governors', 2000 Commissioner's, 2000 Governors', 2001 All-Filipino, 2005 Fiesta, 2009 Fiesta) 6× PBA All-Star (2000, 2001, 2003–2006) 2× PBA Mythical First Team (2000, 2001) 3× PBA Mythical Second Team (1998, 1999, 2004-05) PBA Mr. Quality Minutes (1993) No. 17 retired by the San Miguel Beermen 2× UAAP Champion (1987, 1988) As assistant coach: 9× PBA champion coach (2013 Governors', 2014 Philippine, 2014 Commissioner's, 2016 Governors', 2017 Governors', 2018 Commissioner's, 2019 Governors', 2020 Philippine, 2021 Governors') As head coach: Father Martin Cup Summer Tournament Champion (2019)
Medals Men’s basketball Representing  Philippines Asian Games 1998 Bangkok Team competition

Early life

Olsen Racela, born on November 1 in Quezon City, Philippines, was so named because he was born on All Saint's Day (his brother Nash was born on Bonifacio Day). As a young boy, he started playing basketball early in his life. It was just a simple game for Olsen back then, which consisted of a couple of shots through a hoop in his old neighborhood. Among his brothers, he proved to have the prodigious basketball skills which gave him a spot in Ateneo de Manila University's varsity team.

Amateur career

Racela played for the Ateneo Blue Eagles in a backup role to Jun Reyes and was a member of the Blue Eagles team that won the UAAP title in 1988. He also played in the Philippine Amateur Basketball League and the RP Youth Team.

PBA career

Purefoods

In 1993, Racela was selected 12th by Purefoods in the 1993 PBA Rookie Draft. From 1993-1996, he played the backup role to Dindo Pumaren and won two titles with the Purefoods franchise under a limited role with the team.

San Miguel Beermen

In 1997, Racela was traded to the San Miguel Beermen for merely two second round picks for the succeeding three years beginning 1998. This became the turnaround of his young career. Under new San Miguel head coach Ron Jacobs, Racela's skills were noticed under a rebuilding Beermen squad of Nelson Asaytono, Freddie Abuda and Mike Mustre.

In 1998, Racela's game would improve and was rewarded with a spot on the Tim Cone-coached Philippine Centennial Team that took home a bronze medal in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand. A season later, with Racela as its top point guard, San Miguel became the league's new dynasty under Jong Uichico, winning five titles from 1999-2001.

2002 Busan Asiad

He made his second stint in the national team in 2002 for the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. With Racela as point guard, the Nationals made it all the way through the semifinals against host South Korea. In the final minute, Racela scored a three-pointer to give the Philippines the lead. However, after recovering the possession and was fouled, he missed two crucial free throws that could have given the country a four-point lead. Instead, Lee Sang Min's buzzer-beating triple gave the Koreans a dramatic 69-68 victory. Some argued that the blame rested on Jong Uichico's coaching strategy in which he did not set up a plan to ease Racela's pressure from the 15 foot line.

Despite the missed free-throws, Racela continued to shine in his point guard duties with San Miguel. In 2004, he dished his 2,000th career assist and was the starting point guard when the Beermen won another title in the 2005 PBA Fiesta Conference.

Starting in the 2007-08 All Filipino Conference, Racela occasionally played off the bench in preparation for his retirement and later life as an assistant coach.

On August 11, 2010, Racela became the fifth player alongside Ramon Fernandez, Robert Jaworski, Abet Guidaben & Philip Cezar to play at least 900 games in the PBA.

League's oldest active Player and Retirement

After PBA legend Johnny Abarrientos announced his retirement, Racela played for another season with San Miguel. He turned 40 on November 1, 2010 and was the senior statesman of the PBA during that season. He announced his retirement on January 28, 2011 at the Araneta Coliseum at the start of Game 4 of the finals. He had played the entire finals series before he hanged up his #17 jersey in which Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters subdued San Miguel Beermen in 6 games.

Coaching career

On December 20, 2016, FEU announced the hiring of Racela as the head coach of the FEU Tamaraws men's basketball team in the UAAP. He replaced his brother Nash, who was appointed as the head coach of the PBA team TNT Katropa. This also serves as his first head coaching job in a varsity basketball team.[2]

Coaching record

Collegiate record

Season	Team	Eliminations				Playoffs
		W	L	PCT	Finish	PG	W	L	PCT	Results
2017	FEU	7	7	.500	4th	2	1	1	.500	Lost to Ateneo in the semifinals.
2018	FEU	8	6	.571	4th	2	1	1	.500	Won over La Salle in the 4th-seed playoff, Lost to Ateneo in the semifinals.
2019	FEU	8	6	.571	3rd	1	0	1	.000	Lost to UST in the First round.
2021	FEU	7	7	.500	4th	1	0	1	.000	Lost to Ateneo in the semifinals.
Totals		30	26	.535		6	2	4	.333	0 championships

PBA

Season	Team	Conference	Elims./Clas. round					Playoffs
			GP	W	L	PCT	Finish	PG	W	L	PCT	Results
2012–13	Petron	Philippine Cup	14	6	8	.429	7th	1	0	1	.000	Lost in the Quarterfinals without twice-to-beat advantage
		Commissioner's Cup	14	8	6	.571	3rd	2	0	2	.000	Lost in the Quarterfinals
Career Total			28	14	14	.500	Playoff Total	3	0	3	.000	0 championship

Personal life

Racela's nickname was based on the day of his birth as it was during All-Saints Day.

His brother, Raoul Cesar or Nash Racela, is currently the head coach of the Adamson Soaring Falcons and the former head coach of the FEU Tamaraws who were champions in the UAAP. Nash also coached the Batangas Blades in the Metropolitan Basketball Association. Olsen has 3 children namely Ryan, Raya, and Rafa.

Basketball career

School leagues

• 1984: Ateneo de Manila - PAYA Aspirants
• 1985: Ateneo de Manila - PAYA Juniors
• 1986 Ateneo de Manila - UAAP Juniors
• 1987-1992: Ateneo de Manila - UAAP Seniors

Philippine Basketball League

• 1989: Crispa Redmanizers
• 1990-1991: A&W Rootbeers
• 1992: Pop Cola

Philippine Basketball Association

• 1993–1996: Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs
• 1997–2011: San Miguel Beermen

National teams

• 1987 Asian Youth 18 years and below, Qatar
• 1989 ABC Under-18 Championship, Manila
• 1998 Asian Games, Thailand
• 1998 Jones Cup, Taipei
• 2002 Asian Games, Busan, South Korea

Awards and achievements

Philippine Basketball Association

• 1993 Mr. Quality Minutes
• 1998-1999 2-time Mythical Second Team
• 2000-2001 2-time Mythical First Team
• 2000-01, 2003–04, 2006 5-time All-Star
• 2002-2003 Mythical Second team
• 2004 21st member of 2000-Assist Club
• 2010 5th member of 900 Games club

PBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Correct as of July 26, 2011[3]

Season-by-season averages

Year	Team	GP	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1993	Coney Island/Purefoods	43	8.3	.514	.333	.700	0.9	1.3	.4	.1	3.4
1994	Coney Island/Purefoods	62	15.6	.479	.444	.661	0.9	1.5	.4	.1	3.7
1995	Purefoods	59	24.8	.502	.222	.851	1.7	3.1	1.2	.1	6.7
1996	Purefoods TJ/Corned Beef	58	22.6	.454	.115	.795	1.5	3.0	.8	.1	6.4
1997	San Miguel	62	40.0	.439	.316	.876	1.8	4.7	.7	.1	11.4
1998	San Miguel	49	38.2	.455	.292	.847	2.8	4.5	1.1	.2	8.8
1999	San Miguel	53	34.2	.399	.233	.843	2.3	3.6	.8	.1	7.3
2000	San Miguel	58	32.9	.461	.383	.839	2.3	3.0	.6	.1	9.6
2001	San Miguel	70	34.3	.395	.381	.871	2.2	2.8	.8	.03	10.9
2002	San Miguel	12	26.2	.384	.294	.800	1.9	4.6	.9	.2	9.7
2003	San Miguel	50	32.5	.417	.373	.865	3.0	4.8	1.1	.1	10.8
2004–05	San Miguel	78	34.0	.398	.354	.827	2.2	5.3	1.1	.1	11.4
2005-06	San Miguel	43	32.6	.367	.305	.863	2.7	4.3	1.1	.1	8.3
2006-07	San Miguel	62	26.3	.373	.286	.872	2.3	3.5	1.0	.1	8.5
2007-08	Magnolia	47	20.0	.426	.391	.912	1.6	2.5	.6	.1	6.3
2008-09	San Miguel	56	20.0	.387	.327	.828	1.9	3.2	.6	.04	6.0
2009-10	San Miguel	39	11.0	.393	.328	.833	0.8	1.2	.6	.03	3.2
2010-11	San Miguel	24	12.0	.344	.303	.875	0.8	1.7	.3	.0	3.0
Career		925	27.0	.419	.334	.841	1.9	3.3	.8	.1	7.8

References

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