Volleyball blues

Anticipating the end of Governor Gwen Garcia’s term, I already expressed concern about the future of volleyball here in Cebu.

During her watch, there were at least six editions of the Guv’s Cup which stirred volleyball activities in almost all municipalities and cities in Cebu.

As a result, new talents were discovered every year from as far as Santa Fe in the north and Alcoy in the south. Current volleyball stars were also given a venue to showcase and improve their skills. So many of the players who were discovered during the tournament were able to land scholarships in various colleges and universities in the City and even in Metro Manila.

I expressed concern at the time, because I felt that the volleyball hierarchy was too smug about the state of the sport. Everything was made easy with the full support given by the provincial government.

I pointed out a possible scenario that would come, if the provincial government’s support  would no longer be there.

It would not have been difficult to come up with an alternate structure to replace the one that the province put in place, so that the province-wide tournament could continue.

When nothing seemed imminent, I made an attempt to convince the province to maintain its support of the program by writing a letter to Governor Davide.

I thought that if the province was willing to continue a project like Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo, it would also have a slot for a program that was benefiting thousands of young constituents of the province.

Unfortunately, the province probably has more urgent priorities, because my request was turned down.

The six-year (or more) effort to promote volleyball in the grassroots was all put to naught.

The blame, however, is not placed on the provincial government but on the leadership of the sport. This was before volleyball got a big hype when national television started airing volleyball tournaments. At the time, the Guv’s Cup Volleyball

Tournament was one of the most important volleyball tournaments in the country.

My thoughts about the situation of volleyball here in Cebu came back because in a few days Mandaue City will again be holding the Mayor Jonas Inter-Barangay Volleyball Tournament, which is probably bigger than the CESAFI Tournament, in terms of participating teams and the number of athletes involved.

The tournament will have elementary and high school categories, and the open category. It will also have the native (Dayon-Dayon) volleyball. This tournament has been going on for some time and is the prime reason why Mandaue City has a lot of volleyball coaches and trainers which assures a steady stream of talents coming out of the City.

Anugon lang!

A province-wide tournament served as a motivation for players, coaches and trainers alike to conscientiously train.

Without such a tournament, so many of these aspiring volleyball players would remain as barrio athletes, until they decide to have a family, and leave their volleyball in the “what if” limbo.