WITH foreign coaches in the PVL finding themselves on the chopping block as of late, Farm Fresh is keen on staying put with its stern Italian mentor in Alessandro Lodi.
In fact, ace winger Trisha Tubu even pointed out how the Foxies have already acquainted themselves with Lodi’s coaching philosophy centered on playing smart than hard.
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“Nandu’n na po kami. Process pa rin, pero ang nangyayari na is niyakap namin yung sistema ni coach. Naniwala kami sa gusto niya para sa’min,” Tubu said after dropping 14 points in Farm Fresh’s straight-sets win over Galeries Tower in the 2025 PVL on Tour in Cebu City.
“May mga errors man pero yung goal namin, hard serve, bawasan pa yung errors, blocking din, at saka play smart.
“’Yun talaga ‘yung gusto ni coach kaya mapapansin niyo po na hindi kami naglaro nang hard kasi gusto ni coach, maglaro kami nang smart.”
Short-term pains for long-term gains
Lodi, 46, preaches playing smart on the court but also puts a premium on thinking smart off of it.
For instance, winning three in a row in the early goings of his PVL coaching career couldn’t matter less for the outspoken Italian tactician.
It’s because seeing plenty of fundamental flaws in the Foxies’ current style of play makes him treat every game as a window for reparation for a team he believes is nowhere near the league’s higher echelons — at least for now.
“I don’t care about the [win streak]. I never talk about wins and losses. We only talk about things we can control,” Lodi said.
“It’s a process. It takes a long time. We need to become way better than we are. We need to learn a lot of new things. People have to make major changes because how they’ve been playing is nowhere close to good enough to compete at a high level in the league.”
Safe to say, with four foreign PVL coaches axed over the course of a year, Lodi’s in it for the long game.
“This is the only thing we will focus on. If we do that, if we do things how we want to do them and lose, it’s fine. It’s part of the competition,” he said.
“If we don’t do it and win, there’s no big joy because it’s really a long-term process. It takes some time. Wins and losses come and go.”
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