The brightest collegiate stars in Cebu aim to put a good first impression in the Generika Lifesavers volleyball tryouts set at 5 p.m. this afternoon at the Aznar Coliseum.
Among those who will join the tryouts is four-time Cesafi champion and Southwestern University (SWU) open spiker Necca Rose dela Llana, who is set to graduate this year.
The 20-year-old Dela Llana was initially offered by former CIGNAL head coach Sammy Acaylar to play for the CIGNAL HD Lady Spikers moments after winning a four-peat with the SWU Lady Cobras last November.
But Acaylar resigned from CIGNAL late last year, forcing Dela Llana to take a different direction.
“I will try but I won’t expect that I will make it because there are a lot of good players,” Dela Llana said. “But it’s worth the try.”
Also expected to participate are 2015 Cesafi Most Valuable Player (MVP) Floremel “Dij” Rodriguez and 2016 Cesafi MVP Therese Rae Ramas.
The Lifesavers, who last won a Philippine Superliga (PSL) title in 2014, are willing to invest on a player for a year or two to help them get out of a slump.
Generika Lifesavers Team Manager Allyn Sta. Maria believes that building and developing raw talent from the province is essential in forming a solid core for the future.
“The idea to conduct tryouts in the provinces specifically Cebu and Davao really came from our head coach, Francis Vicente. We share the same belief with him that discovering and developing talent is an important ingredient in building a successful team. We are looking for players who possess the right skills and attitude preferably (but not limited to) those who are college degree holders. You see what we’d like to do is also help these players in their future careers outside of volleyball,” Sta Maria said.
However, Sta. Maria is also encouraging non-graduates to give it a try so that they can have an idea on who to recruit in the future years. “Historically speaking, the Visayas has produced a lot of good players. Case in point our assistant coaches, Coach Mayi Prochina and Coach Nene Chavez the last gold medalists in the SEA Games of 1993 are both from Cebu and Mindanao.” she added