WHO would have thought that a bunch of boys from the Pangasinan town of Umingan who had never played in the Big City before would emerge champions of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Under-18 Championships on Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum?
And to think that their coach didn’t even play competitive volleyball at all — although he ran the 100-, 200- and 400 meters of athletics in his elementary and high school days representing the Pangasinan border town to Nueva Ecija.
Math teacher figures it out
Eusebio Solis, the coach, doesn't even teach Physical Education, but the head of the Mathematics department at the Umingan National High School.
“It’s tough, too tough, we’ve gone through much challenges,” said an ecstatic Solis moments after the pulsating 25-23, 23-25, 23-25, 25-17, 16-14 come-from-behind win over VNS-Savouge to win the boys crown of the championships organized by the PNVF headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.
“But we proved something with this victory, that we, provincial teams, can beat the strong teams from the big city,” added Solis, who admitted he did some arithmetic of sorts in figuring our how he could become a volleyball coach and teach the sport’s rudiments to kids despite his zero experience in the sport.
“I went to my mentors,” he said without elaborating.
Umingan, a town around 60 kilometers away from Dagupan City, was represented by students of its national high school and basically supported by parents and Mayor Michael Cruz. Now the boys are on their way to the Palarong Pambansa nationals in Cebu in July.
How they did it was another tough challenge.
The team traveled to Laoag City for the Palaro regionals and, as Pangasinan’s representative, beat Ilocos Norte for the right to represent the province in Cebu.
They then took a plane ride right after the match to catch the 5:30 p.m. semifinals match against Canossa Academy of Lipa City at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. They were lucky enough that they flew without any major hitch and went on to clinch the ticket to the final in four sets.
“We got to Rizal Memorial at 3:30 p.m., enough for the team to recover and prepare for the semifinals,” Solis said.
University of Santo Tomas (UST), meanwhile, tamed National University, 25-17, 17-25, 25-20, 25-23, to capture the girls’ crown in the all-UAAP finale.
Kimberly Rubin led UST to the win and later went on to claim the girls’ Most Valuable Player trophy alongside the boys’ best player, Umingan’s Michael Angelo Fernandez, also the First Best Open Hitter awardee, who credits his high-leaping ability to competing in the long jump before he shifted to volleyball.
Rubin was also named the First Best Open Hitter with her teammates Avril Denise Bron (First Best Middle Blocker) and Lianne Penuliar (Second Best Middle Blocker) also making their marks to help UST cap a perfect championship run.
“Good job by the girls,” UST head coach Lerma Giron said. “All of them stand out in difficult times.”
Individual awardees
The other awardees in the boys’ division were Luke Anton Macatangay (Second Best Open Hitter) of bronze medalist Canossa Academy, Roderick Medina (Best Opposite Hitter) of runner-up VNS-Savouge and Lawrence Lanting (Best Libero) of fourth-placer Angatleta Sports-Orion,Bataan,
In the girls’ division, completing the dream team were Althea Sumague (Second Best Open Hitter) of fourth-placer La Salle-Lipa, Jayrelle Mesa (Best Libero) of third-placer Kings’ Montessori School, Harlyn Serneche (Best Opposite Hitter) and Cheska Peñol (Best Setter) of runner-up NU.
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