Soriano eyes greater heights for PH beach volleyball

FILE – Charo Soriano. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Charo Soriano has always been a constant advocate for the development of beach volleyball in the Philippines, but this time she’s turning it up a notch.

After the creation of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation Inc., Soriano said that the further development of the beach volleyball circuit in the Philippines will have more government backing as well as recognition from the International Volleyball Federation or FIVB.

“This time around it’s going to be different because we are recognized already by the Philippine Olympic Committee, supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and at the same time recognized and fully supported by the International Federation,” said Soriano in a Zoom interview with Inquirer Saturday.

Soriano, who’s a board member for the PNVFI, is an active supporter of beach volleyball in the country and in 2015 created the Beach Volleyball Republic wherein she and her group toured coastal communities in the Philippines to stage tournaments and find future talents.

This closeness to beach volleyball put Soriano at the helm of the national sports association’s efforts for the propagation of the sport.

Helping her in her endeavor are national team players Dzi Gervacio and Jaron Requinton, among others, and they plan to build on their approach of going to coastal communities to further enrich the “sandroots” of beach volleyball.

“One thing that we really plan to do is to be able to involve the coastal communities. We’ve been doing that before, when we go out and do tours, but now it’s gonna be a different level, because we really want to touch on the community basis,” said Soriano.

“We know the Philippines is a beautiful country, we have a lot of beautiful beaches and the beaches we go to are actually our playground for beach volleyball. We want to look for players, and hone them, from the coastal communities.”

Another step is to give the prospective talents a chance to improve their education as more athletes could enter colleges via scholarship and would focus solely on beach volleyball instead of having to choose between the sand court and the indoor sport.

“Our mission in the PNVF is to be willing to show them that there is a pathway for beach volleyball and not only volleyball,” said Soriano. “A decade ago we had to choose, for example in the UAAP, indoor sports because that’s where the scholarships come from.”