Volleyball national team head coach Shaq delos Santos talks to the players after their training session on Thursday. Photo by Bong Lozada
The new lineup for the women’s national team will be released soon.
After newly-appointed mentor Shaq Delos Santos and his new coaching staff do their final deliberations, the roster of players—12 in the active list and two reserves—who will represent the Philippines in the Asian Games and AVC Asia Cup could be named as early as Thursday night.
“We have to talk about this thoroughly because we didn’t hold tryouts where the players have to really compete with each other because we already know the quality of their abilities,” said Delos Santos in Filipino.
Delos Santos, who took over Ramil De Jesus earlier this week, held a second training session this week for the national team pool on Thursday at Arellano gym.
Present on Thursday’s practice were Alyssa Valdez, Jia Morado, Myla Pablo, Aby Maraño, CJ Rosario, Jaja Santiago, Rhea Dimaculangan, Myka Ortiz, Becca Rivera, Denden Lazaro, Mika Reyes, Mylene Paat, and Cess Molina.
Delos Santos added that he is aware of the difficulty of the situation he’s in since he’s only handled the team for less than a week.
“It’s hard because my timeline is this short but we’re used to facing situations like this one and with the guidance of the bosses like sir Peter [Cayco, LVPI vice president], we will face this kind of situation,” said Delos Santos who also handles Petron in the Philippine Superliga.
“I told the players that we have to do what is right for the team.”
Delos Santos said they would still look into the complete list of players to determine the final lineup.
Notable absentees on Thursday were La Salle’s graduating core of Kianna Dy, Mary Joy Baron, and Dawn Macandili but all three were allowed to take their leave since they had to process their visas at the United States Embassy.
“The deliberations will be difficult because everyone can become part of the final lineup but we still have to check with their club teams,” said Delos Santos. “We have to take their schedules into consideration.”