COACHES and team representatives of teams who have signed up for the July 25-26 Batang Growee Park Volley festival at the University of St. La Salle football field are scheduled to meet with organizers and tournament officials at 9 a.m. Saturday, at the USLS Varsity Sports Office.

They will discuss tournament rules and the system of competition in this novelty event that is co-hosted by the Negros Occidental Volleyball Association (Nova) headed by former Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) president Roger Banzuela and the USLS Varsity Sports Office headed by Marilou Lozada.

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Some 80 teams in both the 12-Under boys and girls categories are expected to troop to the competition venue on July 25-26 to compete in the event which is envisioned by organizers to eventually become a national tournament after the concept is introduced to all the other major volleyball centers in various parts of the country.

The tournament features 25 playing courts being put up all over the USLS football grounds each measuring 7 meters by 14 meters with the volleyball net measuring 2 meters.

Each participating teams is composed of six players—four regulars and two substitutes.

“We look at the park volley concept as a good way to properly introduce the game to age-groupers in the grassroots level and it is for this reason that we are pushing for its acceptance all over the country,” Banzuela, who is chairman of the Negros Occidental Private Schools Sports Cultural and Educational Association (Nopsscea) Sports Task Force, told Sun.Star Bacolod in an earlier interview.

Interested participating teams can still contact the USLS VSO through tel. no. 434-69-29 for more information regarding the event. (HCV)

Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on July 4, 2009.