Sunday, August 31, 2008 GUV Cup honors outstanding players
AFTER four years, the Governor Gwen Garcia Unity Volleyball Cup for Women finally achieved what the league originally sought out to do—unify the province.
Yesterday during the general assembly, the province’s 45 towns and eight cities, formalized their entry in the competition.
Four years ago, the competition was cooked as sort of a loyalty check following threats of dividing the province.
“Finally, we have reached that goal,” said official Janeth Ponte.
Apart from this, the GUV Cup also claimed another milestone as more volleyball players from far-flung municipalities were discovered through the province-wide volleyball competition.
Scholarships
Five players, Christine Lavador of Danao, Melissa Ranayla of Ronda, Myrna Baunsit of Borbon, Navine Castro of Tuburan and Laprile Aguilar of Samboan were taken into different universities to beef up their volleyball teams and got scholarship in return.
“In a regular setting, some of these players would not have the guts to go and try out with the teams. But we saw them play and we asked them to join us,” said Ponte, the Southwestern University head coach, who added Aguilar into her lineup.
“I saw her potential when she was still in third year high school. I told her that we are willing to wait until she will be in college and then she could try out with us,” added Ponte.
Cesafi champion
On the other hand, Lavador and Ranayla joined the University of San Jose Recoletos of head coach Grace Antigua. The two will help the team in its bid for a fourth straight championship in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. volleyball competition slated to open next month.
Castro will be joining University of the Visayas of coach Raffy Briones.
The five were given the Gawad GUV Cup awards yesterday during the launching.
Aside from the five, officials of Cebu Volleyball Association, who recently received a national referees’ ranking were also cited yesterday.
They are Ponte, Judith Bonita, Gerry Catipay, Oliver Garcia, Jessie Yongco, Rolando Pepito and Jesnar Ganancial, who have gone through several trainings and seminar to get the certification. (MCB)
