Ex-basketball standout spearheads netball trending drive

After advancing the popularity of women’s basketball, Merenciana “Ewon’’ Arayi is now driving the cause to make netball trendy as well.

The longest-tenured player and team captain of the national women’s basketball team recently guided the Philippine netball squad known as Siklab Pilipinas to a silver-medal finish in the 2022 International Netball held in Jeonju, South Korea.

So far, winding up second place in the six-nation tournament was the most memorable output by the team in preparation for the Asian championships next month. Singapore captured the gold medal while host Korea got the bronze.

“This is different from basketball in terms of physicality and our coaches are helping us a lot to develop and embrace the sport,’’ said Arayi, who led the women’s basketball team to a gold medal in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association Championships in 2010.

Aside from Arayi, the members of that silver winning squad were Tin Abriam, Shang Berte, Je-Anne Carmelo, Kat Garcia, Nica Guliman, Ken Lomogda, Bennetee Revillosa, CJ Seno and Vangie Soriano.

“We have to learn and love netball and share this passion to the next generation of players,’’ added Arayi.

Netball, with over 20 million players in more than 80 countries, is played by two teams of seven players in a rectangular indoor court with raised goal rings at each end. Each team attempts to score goals by passing a ball down the court and shooting it through its ring.

“Our focus right now is to have a genuine grassroots development program. We really went around the country even during the pandemic to introduce netball,’’ said national coach Piao Fedillaga.

Fedillaga and fellow national coach Sae-an Gallegos have been working together with the Philippine Netball Federation Inc. and its president, lawyer Charlie Ho, in building a sustainable grassroots program.