Shakey’s Super League expects bigger 2025 season

NU Lady Bulldogs celebrate their Game 1 win over La Salle Lady Spikers in the 2024 Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-season Championship. –AUGUST DELA CRUZ/INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines — After a successful 2024 season, Shakey’s Super League eyes bigger competition next year with overseas teams expressing their interest in joining the high school and collegiate preseason tournaments.

SSL president Dr. Ian Laurel was happy with their continuous rise in their third year where National University ruled the 2024 National Invitationals and completed a historic ‘three-peat’ in the Preseason Championship and Adamson captured the Girls Volleyball Invitational League (GVIL).

“We’re very happy. This is our third preseason, and when we started, we were already happy that all the teams were present—10 from the NCAA and eight from the UAAP. But as the tournament progressed, we saw the level of play from the players really improve,” said Laure.

READ: NU Lady Bulldogs seal preseason 3-peat, this time with new coach

“We saw the crowd appreciate the players. Our crowds have been great throughout the games, and of course, the Finals between De La Salle and NU had an excellent outcome.”

For the upcoming season, two teams from California composed of Filipino-Americans could play in the GVIL while Australian and Japanese teams are likely to up the competition against UAAP and NCAA teams in the Invitationals.

“There are [interested to play in] GVIL, including high school teams. Two teams coming from California, all Fil-Americans, so you can imagine how exciting it would be at the high school level. Then we have our invitational, with one Australian team and one Japanese team, and of course the Preseason, which is our flagship conference of the SSL that still features all the NCAA and UAAP teams,” Laurel said.

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The 2025 season opens with the GVIL, followed by the National Invitationals and the centerpiece preseason tournament.

“We expect 2025 to be a big year because not only is it the 50th anniversary of Shakey’s here in the Philippines, but we have generated a lot of interest from other teams [from] other countries that— they’ve started to take notice of the Shakey’s Super League and they want to participate,” said the volleyball executive.

“We’re talking about countries from Northern America, California (USA), Japan, and Australia. There are already inquiries about how they can join. We really need to plan ahead, and that’s something we should look forward to in 2025.”

SSL also said it had collected a total of 13 million from the league’s promo bundle with Arellano bringing home P1,759,358, followed by Jose Rizal University with P912,008, and College of Saint Benilde with P896,758.

Letran received P855,908; San Beda had P830,758; Emilio Aguinaldo College (P814,008); San Sebastian (P730,458); Mapua (P724,408); Adamson (P718,908); Ateneo (P701,958); University of the Philippines (P701,908); University of Perpetual Help (P657,358); National University (P652,708); La Salle (P651,908); Lyceum (P646,008); University of Santo Tomas (P616,808); University of the East (P536,058); and Far Eastern University (P528,758).