Time-juggling Alinsunurin starts ‘polishing’ Flying Titans

Coach Dante Alinsunurin. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Dante Alinsunurin has proven his worth on the bench numerous times and is expected to do well with Choco Mucho in the Premier Volleyball League, never mind if he will be handling a women’s team for the first time.

“My coaching style will be the same,” Alinsunurin, who has won men’s titles in the UAAP and the Spikers’ Turf with National University aside from having credit for the Philippines’ silver medal in the Southeast Asian Games in 2019, said.

“There will be some adjustments because the women’s [division] has a different style of play,” he added.

A major adjustment for Alinsunurin at this time, it seems, is juggling his time with several commitments already in place before he accepted the post to handle the popular Flying Titans.

He will still be the head tactician for the Bulldogs when the UAAP opens its season in February, and will handle the National men’s team in the Cambodia SEAG in May.

“It’s just a matter of managing my time when it comes to practices,” Alinsunurin told the Inquirer. “And besides, the National team hasn’t gathered yet.”

Despite commanding mammoth crowds every time it plays, Choco Mucho has underachieved of late as the Flying Titans failed to make it past the eliminations of the Reinforced and Invitational Conferences last year.

Alinsunurin, though, knows the materials at his disposal, and giving the Flying Titans a different system at this time could be the trick.

Underachieving

Choco Mucho also has yet to make a title series in the Premiere Volleyball League, which opens its new season with the Open Conference on Feb. 4.

“I decided to join the Choco Mucho team because I believe that my system is applicable to them since they have the height and skills,” he said. “We just need a little bit of polishing.”

The colorful Oliver Almadro stepped down in the middle of the Flying Titans’ campaign in the Reinforced Conference, as Edjet Mabbayad called the shots on an interim basis and posted a 3-5 record.

Alinsunurin, who also led the Bulldogs to a gold medal in the 2018 Asean University Games in Myanmar before settling for silver in the 2022 edition Thailand, is inheriting a Choco Mucho squad bannered by Kat Tolentino, Deanna Wong, Desiree Cheng, Isa Molde, Bea De Leon, Maddie Madayag, and libero Denden Lazaro-Revilla.