Alyssa Valdez, left, and Jeffrey Jimenez during the opening of the 13th season of the Shakey’s V-League. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Ricky Palou, the former athletic director of Ateneo, on Wednesday called on those who have been criticizing three-time MVP Alyssa Valdez to respect the volleybelle’s decision not to play in the Philippine Super Liga.
Valdez has been the target of criticisms following her choice not to play in the PSL, which also essentially took her out of the running for slots in the teams for the Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship and the FIVB Women’s Club Women Championship.
Palou, the president of Sports Vision which is the organizer of the Shakey’s V-League, cleared that he is not forcing the former Ateneo superstar to stay in the V-League.
“Other people are forcing her to play in the PSL, eh ayaw niya eh. They’re saying pinipigilan ko. Hindi ko pinipigilan si Alyssa maglaro [sa PSL],” said Palou at Philsports Arena after a Shakey’s V-League game. “I told Alyssa ‘If you want to play in the PSL, that’s fine with me, hindi sasama loob ko sa’yo, choice mo yan eh. If you think you’ll be better off there, by all means, it’s your decision.’”
Valdez is in Ateneo’s line-up in the on-going Collegiate conference but is not suiting up for the Lady Eagles to give way for the younger ones. She is also busy with the upcoming AV Skills Camp 2.
“We’re hoping this thing will stop kasi we should respect the choice of a person. If she prefers to play in the V-League, fine. We don’t say anything about the other league, they do what they want, bahala sila, they have their own tournament, let they run it the way they want, but you don’t [hear] anything coming from us. We’re just here to promote volleyball and make it better so that people will enjoy, ayun lang naman ang gusto naming mangyari dito.”
Valdez was also supposed to play under Foton, a team in the PSL, for the upcoming Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship but was disallowed from joining due to a rule that a player should play for one PSL conference to be eligible for the Asian tournament.
“Foton asked Alyssa to play in the Asian Volleyball Women’s Club Championship so they talked to me, I said ‘yeah she can play’ and I told Alyssa, ‘Alyssa if you want to play, you can play,’” said Palou.
“I was talking to Alvin Lu [Foton manager] that Alyssa is good to play. A few weeks later they come back to me and said hindi pwede, she cannot play because PSL has a rule that says to play in the club championship you have to play in the PSL at least one conference, so hindi na siya pwede. So that’s the reason why she’s not playing in this Asian Women’s Club Championship.”
Palou said Valdez expressed her intent to play with the Tornadoes, but only in the Asian level.
Valdez reportedly begged off from also joining the Women’s Club Women Championship in October since the PSL has already picked seven local players to add to seven imports that will represent the Philippines.