BEFORE the sixth edition of the Gov. Gwen Garcia Unity Volleyball Cup kicks off this September 2010, reelected Gov. Garcia called up the Cebu Volleyball Association (Ceva) officers spearheaded by Jun San Juan after an alarming drop of women participants in the 2009 edition.
“In 2008, the volleyball cup was well represented by 51 teams from all 44 towns and seven cities in the entire Cebu Province but last year the women teams dropped to 45,” Ceva president San Juan said.
He said it was probably due to last year’s addition of the men’s division, where some towns or cities opted to send just a men’s team because of budgetary constraints.
Original
The Gov. Gwen Garcia Unity Volleyball (Guv) Cup, which started in 2005, was originally an all-women tournament to give a venue to those players with talents from the provinces to be discovered. However, due to the clamor, the men’s division was added last year.
“We will be meeting again this Thursday to discuss what we can do to help the tournament regain the number of women’s teams,” San Juan said.
San Juan also added Garcia is requesting for a new set of screening committee and wants to be stricter in the eligibility of the players.
Reinforcements
San Juan said that to give more excitement to the games and to boost the morale of the bottom teams, they are also considering allowing unseeded teams to tap reinforcements, who aren’t necessarily residents of the town.
With the main objective of the tournament to develop players from the grassroots, San Juan said over the past five years they were able to produce players who are now playing in the different universities in the city.
“The organization feels pride every time we hear that these players were discovered from the tournament, that the program gave them the chance to be discovered. This is what inspired the governor to continue and improve the tournament,” San Juan said.
San Juan also said they want to revive Cebu’s volleyball glory years in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, when Cebu produced eight members of the Philippine National Volleyball team. “We hope that, through this tournament, we can discover players who have potentials of becoming national players,” San Juan said.