ZUS Coffee and Farm Fresh are the last two unbeaten teams three weeks into the 2025 PVL Reinforced Conference.
The two teams in the Frank Lao-backed Strong Group Athletics (SGA) stable are the unlikely joint league leaders on franchise-record 3-0 (win-loss) starts in their respective groups.
The Foxies routed Nxled, Cignal and Capital1 while the Thunderbelles bested Akari, Galeries Tower and defending champion Creamline in their bracket.
For ZUS Coffee coach Jerry Yee, who was among the first coaches tapped for the SGA volleyball program in 2023, it was a matter of repaying the Lao family’s continued trust from their winless first campaigns to their eventual playoff breakthroughs.
“Kailangan [maglaro nang maayos] kasi maganda ‘yung suporta ng management so kailangan suklian mo kung ano ‘yung kailangan mo binibigay nila,” Yee said.
“Hindi pwedeng hindi kami mag-step up.”
Just last year, Yee went 0-11 and 0-8 in his first two conferences with SGA-turned-ZUS Coffeeat the time.
The next two tournaments saw the Thunderbelles make back-to-back quarterfinals appearances, all in just a little over one year since their rebrand.
Yee believes how that turnaround in so short a time was made possible by finding the right people to carry out SGA’s project on the court.
From the inaugural top draft pick in Thea Gagate to veteran winger Jovelyn Gonzaga and now league-leading scorer Anna DeBeer, the soft-spoken mentor is elated to see his young team evolve into a playoff contender.
“Si Strong Group masipag naman mag-scout for players ‘yun eh. Meron tayong mga connections kahit papaano, kaya ayan, na-contact natin [si Anna],” Yee said.
“Ngayon, siyempre, meron kaming sasandalan so ‘yung kumpyansa nabi-build and ‘yung skills lumalabas kapag meron kang teammate na ganyan. Everybody is stepping up, especially Anna.”
‘Day and night’
Farm Fresh’s Italian head coach Alessandro Lodi saw a stark contrast with how the young Foxies perform and behave themselves on and away from games.
And a huge part of that growth lies on how his players began taking it upon themselves to be at their best even with a well-traveled veteran import in Belgian national team stalwart Helene Rousseaux onboard.
“For sure, it’s day and night. They became more mature. We've worked a lot on the mental side of things, both talking about it, talking about how to think, how to prepare, how to view the game,” Lodi said.
“You need to push them in doing things that maybe they would not want to do or they would not feel like doing or they don't know that are necessary or not know that are necessary at that level of intensity and consistency.”
His coaching acumen doesn’t just revolve around results per se. What matters more for Lodi is to run a system that will best position his players for success in the long term.
“As a great coach once told me, ultimately, the players deserve a chance to win. It's your responsibility and duty to give it to them, and so, what you need to do as a coach is whatever it takes," he added.
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