Highrisers willing to go through birth pains in PVL debut
New PVL team Galeries Tower Highrisers.
Coach Lerma Giron has a realistic view on how the debuting Galeries Tower Highrisers will fare against the talented and more established franchises in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL).
But the newcomers are in no way taking it easy against their opponents with one of the league’s newest “babies” open to the learning in their first All Filipino-Conference that gets going Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“When I accepted the job, I said ‘one month (preparation)?’ In volleyball, there is no one month in the making (of a team),” Giron said recently during the tournament launch. “My goal here is to continue my passion to teach and coach and to build this Galeries team to become competitive eventually.
“We are the babies here (with Nxled Chameleons). There are no babies that start with superhero [performances] and immediately [get to] the top. One game at a time.”
‘We want to win’
With just a short time to build chemistry and come up with team preparations, the Highrisers just celebrated their first month together and will be getting their collective baptism of fire when the 12-team conference of high-level competition gets off the ground.
“Of course we want to win, that’s what we want every game,” Giron said. “But if we don’t win, at least we get game experience to give the team maturity. This conference is just our first two steps, so we manage our expectations and try to win at least two or three games.”
The Highrisers’ camp is going well so far despite the players coming from different backgrounds as everyone tries to help each other build their game.
And Giron is excited to see the Highrisers in real tournament action with standouts like outside hitter Roma Joy Doromal, veteran setters Fenela Emnas and Acy Masangkay, and middle blocker Norielle Ipac leading their campaign.
“What’s good about our lineup is that everyone is a hard worker and hopefully, those who stood out in the tune-up games can also do so in actual games,” said Giron. “I like their bonding, there is no awkwardness. I keep on repeating to them, ‘Let’s work hard, day-by-day we should improve on something.’” Galeries will kick off its bid at the Big Dome on Oct. 17 against the Petro Gazz Angels, who have applied major changes in its coaching staff and new acquisitions to its roster.
