Tryout-absent volleyball stars can still make national team pool
Philippine women’s volleyball team at the SEA Games in Singapore. Photo by Raffy Lerma
MANILA, Philippines—Players who skipped out on the women’s national team tryouts will still be given a chance to enter the pool.
Ramon “Tats” Suzara, Philippine National Volleyball Federation President, said it will be up to head coach Odjie Mamon and his staff to decipher and dissect the players’ performances in past games and in the coming Premier Volleyball League season.
That means the likes of Alyssa Valdez, Mika Reyes, Jia Morado, Dawn Macandili, and Kim Fajardo will still be able to crack the national team pool.
This development was announced after Suzara and the PNVF decided that those who skipped the tryouts won’t be included in the national team pool.
Another round of tryouts, however, will be out of the picture.“There will be no more tryouts. They will be selected during the start of the PVL and (video clips from) previous competitions,” said Suzara in a virtual press conference.
The PNVF invited 40 players for the women’s national team pool, same as the men’s squad, but only 16 turned up at the April 28 tryouts.
Those 16 players, who include veterans Jaja Santiago and Aby Maraño, are already in the pool wMamon is looking to add four or six more to the squad that will compete in the 2021 Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Suzara said that they cannot afford to hold another round of tryouts and that he leaves the responsibility to Mamon and Brazilian staff member Jorge Edson Souza de Brito.
“We cannot have another tryouts because it’s too costly. We leave that to coaches Odjie and Jorge,” said Suzara.
