ANTIPOLO — Jerry Yee is brewing something special with his new-look ZUS Coffee side.
It took 21 PVL games for erstwhile Strong Group Athletics-turned-ZUS Coffee to barge into the win column with the help of a few new pieces.
From No. 1 pick Thea Gagate’s long-awaited PVL debut to a returning veteran in Jovelyn Gonzaga, the Thunderbelles may have just found the final few touches to build a competitive PVL team.
And Yee couldn’t agree more.
Yee's yin and yang
Even in just a matter of months, ZUS Coffee’s mix of veterans and young guns has been a yin-and-yang dynamic that has now led them to its first of possibly more wins to come.
If there’s anything Gonzaga and the rest of the ZUS vets have taught the young Thunderbelles, it’s to play smart and slow down rather than just going full throttle.
“‘Yung mga veterans, ang laking bagay sa amin kasi we know the tempo, we know the fight, we know the hits, pero ang ‘di namin alam is ‘yung pag-slow down, ‘yung mag-drop kung kailan kailangan mag-drop lang, ‘yung mag-place kung kailan kailangan mag-place lang. Hindi ‘yung hataw kami nang hataw. Puro kami gigil,” Yee said.
“They complement the young energy ng mga bata. Paminsan kasi, you just don’t teach slowing down. Tinatanong ko nga kina Jov, saan ba nabibili ‘yan eh.
“Si Jov, si [Chai] Troncoso, if you watched the game, ‘yung mga crucial points namin, galing sa good placement ng bola nila. Thea is Thea, siyempre kumbaga sa blocking ni Thea, medyo challenging talaga para sa kanila.”
‘Not my first rodeo’
Yee’s been through it all and seen the best and worst the game has to give as a champion mentor.
His hope for the immediate future is to see the Thunderbelles gain a stronger grasp of each other on and off the court.
Only then can things start to fall into place for the league’s long standing cellar-dwellers.
“This is not my first rodeo. Kahit papano, kita ko kung nasaan kami compared sa other teams na nandito at in-form. This is one of them. Exciting that the pieces are going together.
Yee furthered, “Familiarization pa rin kami. Nandyan ‘yung pieces, it’s putting them together and playing as a unit. ‘Di pa kami pulido, marami kaming errors, marami kaming nahuhuling block. Du’n pa rin kami, ensayo pa rin, work and rest.
“Sana things fall into place pa soon.”
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