ILAGAN — While Creamline has long typified its ‘good vibes’ mantra for the last eight years, it’s not always sunshine and rainbows for the PVL's most successful franchise.
In fact, not known to many is how team captain Alyssa Valdez is quite the disciplinarian, too.
Sure, she emanates a light and endearing aura to go with her power hits on the court but there’s a side to the ‘Phenom’ that catches her fellow Cool Smashers off-guard.
READ: Creamline hardly breaks a sweat in sweep of Galeries Tower
Valdez took a deep dive with her fellow Ateneo-turned-Creamline ace Bea de Leon on the team dynamics they’ve shared from college to the pros in the skippers’ ‘Transition Playbook’ podcast.
There, de Leon revealed a key phrase Valdez would use during team trainings that almost instantly gets her teammates back on track if they’d be caught slacking.
Those simple words? ‘Hey, hey, hey!’
Once Valdez goes for that line, it means that she’s hit her threshold in calling out the Cool Smashers — one preceded by a subtle ‘side eye’ as a first warning and a direct name callout as a second warning.
The Creamline captain bared the rationale for her personal system of sorts in keeping the 10-time PVL champions on their toes.
It isn’t even tough love in Valdez’ view but simply a matter of keeping everyone in check when things get a little too light in training for her liking.
“Alam mo, honestly, hindi ko alam. Sila [Creamline] lang ‘yung nakapansin nu’n [hey, hey, hey],” Valdez shared with SPIN.ph.
“As an ate in the team, we give each other talaga leeway also to make mistakes and everything.
“But siguro the third time, it's something na you can start talking through with each other na.”
Even if Creamline’s familiarity with each other over the years has bred an unrivaled winning culture, Valdez actively ensures that her lines are always open to remain a reliable anchor for the team.
“Ganun lang talaga ‘yun. There’s really an open communication in our team and hopefully, mas maganda at mas lumawak pa ‘yung pag-iisip namin because of that culture,” she added.
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