WHO would have thought that a bunch of boys from the municipality of Umingan who have not been exposed to the tough and rough action in the big city would emerge champions in the Philippine National Volleyball Federation Under-18 Championships last Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum?
This despite the fact that their coach didn’t play competitive volleyball at all–although he ran the 100, 200 and 400 meters in his elementary and high school days representing the Pangasinan town that sits next to Nueva Ecija.
What’s more, coach Eusebio Solis is not even a Physical Education teacher; he heads the Mathematics Department at the Umingan National High School.
“It’s tough, too tough, we’ve gone through much challenges,” an ecstatic Solis gushed moments after steering his team to a 25-23, 23-25, 23-25, 25-17, 16-14 come-from-behind win over VNS-Savouge for the boys’ crown in the championships organized by the PNVF headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.
“But we proved something with this victory, that we, provincial teams, could stay in stride or even beat the strong teams from the big city,” added Solis, adding he did some arithmetic of sorts to figure out how he could become a volleyball coach and teach the sport’s rudiments to kids despite his zero experience in the sport.
“I went to my mentors,” he said, keeping to himself who they were.
The winning team, composed of students of the town’s national high school and basically supported by their parents and Mayor Michael Cruz, are on their way to the Palarong Pambansa nationals in Cebu in July.
How they did it was another tough challenge.
The team traveled to Laoag City for the Palaro regionals and, as Pangasinan’s representative, beat Ilocos Norte for the right to represent the province in Cebu.
They then took a plane ride right after the match to catch their 5:30 p.m. semifinals match against Canossa Academy of Lipa City at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. They were lucky enough they flew trouble free and went on to clinch a ticket to the final in four sets.
“We got to Rizal Memorial at 3:30 p.m., enough for the team to recover and prepare for the semifinals,” Solis said.
University of Santo Tomas tamed National University 25-17, 17-25, 25-20, 25-23 to capture the girls’ crown in the all-UAAP finale.
