NGVL target: Provide girls all over PH a chance to play

Coach Kungfu Reyes, whose eye for talent has led to the discovery of some of volleyball’s biggest stars, knows there are a lot of young kids who can make it big in the sport.

“They’re out there in the provinces and I know there are a lot of them,” he said on Tuesday.

READ: Foreign teams to field standouts with Filipino roots in NGVL national finals

The National Grassroots Volleyball League (NGVL) intends to find as many of them as it can.

“Our goal with the NGVL is to be able to go to every place in the Philippines where there are girls who want to play volleyball,” said league president Yvette Katigbak-Ambrocio, who was with her husband, Froi, the league’s president for operations, and Reyes at the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum on Tuesday.

The NGVL, which was created this year to provide a platform for girls under 16 years old to showcase their volleyball skills, is heading into its national finals from May 3 to May 7 at FilOil Centre, where 14 teams, including two from abroad, will compete for the title.

Foreign teams

All participating local squads went through various stages of the countrywide qualification process, and organizers said the response was as amazing as the amount of talent discovered from faraway provinces.

Aside from the qualified teams from Metro Manila, there will be entries from Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Bacolod, Bicol, Laguna, Baguio, and Pangasinan.

Two foreign teams, New Zealand’s FilSpikerz Volleyball Club and the Sentrix Falcons of the United Arab Emirates.—INQUIRER SPORTS DESK INQ