The road back to volleyball glory

The Philippine women’s volleyball team to the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur this August is understandably being keenly followed and scrutinized.

The game is at an all-time high, what with two commercial leagues and a surge in popularity of school competitions. Due to high media exposure in traditional and emerging media, the star players now rival basketball icons in fan following.

The expectations for a decent finish are high, given the individual skills of the players. However, a realistic assessment of the team’s chances should consider that in the region, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam have become the top contenders.

The Philippines once dominated the region, winning the SEA Games gold five times. But due to the long inactivity of the sport save for the school tournaments and a few national meets, the country was left behind by teams it used to dominate.

The V-League, now known as the Premier Volleyball League, rekindled interest in the sport and in time, the Philippine Superliga joined the fray with tournaments of its own. Despite the differences that continue to hound the running of the sport, there now seems to be a valid effort to restore the competitiveness of the country in the SEA Games theater.

The fact there’s a team is an achievement by itself. We should give this crop of players a fair shake because there isn’t really that much time to train and concoct the chemistry vital for international play. The SEA Games participation should be dubbed as a new beginning, an effort to bring the sport’s popularity to new heights.

The team should not worry too much about the criticisms of both experienced and self-appointed analysts. Such is the nature of being in the public domain.

At the height of its storied reign in the Asian region, Philippine national basketball teams were endlessly scrutinized from formation to competition. This simply means there’s interest in the sport and there’s definitely tons of that in volleyball today.