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Thursday, June 02, 2005
Oyson: Philippines did not win a set in Asian volleyball
By Manuel N. Oyson, Jr.
Counter Punch
THIS one is for the books: The Philippines did not win a single set, out of a total of 24, in the just-concluded 5th Asian Girls Youth Volleyball Championships at the Mandaue City Sports Complex. All the matches in the weeklong tournament were best-of-five affairs. And again, the Philippines was not able to extend a match to four sets.
The young Team Philippines went down in three sets in all the matches it played. Thus, it came up with a record of eight losses and no win – an unenviable cellar – in the nine-team tournament under the auspices of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). The Philippines just also happened to host that tournament of girls 13-16 of age. The locals lost to Vietnam in three sets in the battle for seventh place.
GONERS. No analysis is needed of what went wrong with Team Philippines.
The members were goners from the start. The 16-player squad was
supposedly a selection of the best among the best in the sport in their age bracket. Only two came from Cebu. The rest were mostly from Manila.
The only problem is that the team only played together when the tournament started, except for a few practice games. I would not call them patsies, though.
As team coach Sinfrono Acaylar told the media, the team was formed barely two weeks before the start of hostilities. As usual, we still have not learned our lessons. That before going to war, including sports, one must be prepared months in advance. We can’t overemphasize the debacle in the Asian Girls Volleyball Championships because the Philippines was only fielding a token team so as to avoid being sanctioned by FIVB.
EXPECTED. Come to think of it, volleyball is not really our cup of tea. The result was not unexpected. But not to finish in last place or to be swept.
From the start, the Philippines was a goner as compared to South Korea, Japan, Australia, India, Thailand, Chinese-Taipei, Vietnam and champion China. Did we not say over and over that as far as other spots in the Philippines are concerned, it is only basketball, basketball, and more basketball that matters?
Let the other sports be dammed. Notice that even now, the national basketball supremos are still at each other’s throats. Even now, the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) has belatedly entered into the fray to assert its authority over the PBA and its personnel, including its chief, Noli Eala, being a professional sports organization. They do not have the requisite license, it is said.
FLY IN OINTMENT. But this will be the subject of a future column. Let it be said to the credit of Mandaue City Mayor Tadeo Ouano and the Mandaue City Sports Commission under Cheryl Ouano, that the tournament was completed without a hitch despite perceived shortcomings in the physical arrangements such as the lack of running water in some of the rest rooms or absence of a VIP section. They were the only fly in the ointment.
But what’s this? The news that amused me was the report of our Bridge Cities reporter Aledel G. Cuizon yesterday that the proposed memorandum of agreement between the Philippine Volleyball Federation and Mandaue City regarding the tournament’s physical requirements and publicity, is still to be approved by the Mandaue City Council. The tournament is over, dear councilors. Why get hypertension over such a lapse just because your approval was bypassed? The tournament highlighted your city in the Asian media for more than a week. Mandaue City should instead rest on its laurels.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “When we watched the boys, we felt we could do it.” – A 20-year-old woman among a group of veiled women from the squalid section of Calcutta, saying that they can also become good boxers by shedding their saris and veils for boxing gloves
(mno@sunstar.com)
(June 2, 2005 issue)
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