AFTER THE release of the National Volleyball Team training pool lineups by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) accredited National Sports Association (NSA),  Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc (LVPI) on Tuesday, March 14, fans of the Blue and White erupted on social media regarding the omission of Eagle skippers Marck Espejo and Jia Morado.

Espejo is currently the country’s top volleyball player in the men’s division, as he has been decorated with three University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Most Valuable Player titles and has helped turn the tables for Ateneo Men’s Volleyball, leading the team to their first two championships in history. On the other hand, Jia Morado has been the UAAP Women’s Volleyball Season 77 best setter, making her position crucial to the team’s championships in Season 76 and 77.

Volleyball fans of the Philippines expressed their discontent on social media stating that Espejo’s achievements locally and internationally should undeniably merit him a slot on the national team. For Morado, however, the outrage was directed at the inclusion of University of the East (UE) setter Roselle Baliton, claiming that this is due to the political motives of Women’s National Team and UE Head Coach, Francis Vicente.

False Claims

In order to ease the clamor, LVPI claimed that the organization sent out personal invitations to the players, informing them of the national team tryouts that were held on the last week of January. However, the University Athletics Office, Ateneo Volleyball team management, coaching staff and players themselves denied this, as none of them received any form of invitation. Only a general memo was sent to UAAP host school University of Santo Tomas and was disseminated verbally.

“The NSA, LVPI, gave a general invitation to the UAAP, inviting all schools to bring their players to the tryout, but I don’t know if there is, but alam ko there was no personal invitation to the players to tryout,” says Ateneo Men’s Volleyball Head Coach Oliver Almadro.

Washing of Hands

Despite being informed of the national team tryouts, the Blue and Lady Eagles decided not to push through in attending the tryouts due to their current commitments to the University. The LVPI was strictly looking for fully committed players for the national training pool and emphasized the fact that their non-appearance in the tryouts immediately disqualifies them from making it to the national squad.

However, the players were blamed for snubbing the “invitation” and the school was also placed in hot water, as there were claims that Ateneo did not allow the players to attend the tryouts.

“Contrary to what they say na pinipigilan namin, it’s just that we reminded them about their responsibilities. May mga commitments sila and those commitments nila siyempre: academics, yung ongoing competition namin plus the matches, so puno na sila kasi pati yung mga ibang teams hindi rin nakapunta ng tryouts (Contrary to what they say that we’re stopping them, it’s just that we reminded them about their responsibilities. They have commitments and those commitments of course are: academics, the ongoing competition plus the matches, so it’s so full already that other teams were not able to attend the tryouts also),” explains Ateneo Volleyball Program Director Sherwin Malonzo.

The players themselves expressed their desire to be part of the national team, however, academics and the UAAP are top-ranked in their list of priorities for the Season.

“Sinabi rin kasi nila na gusto nilang players yung mga 100% committed na i-rerepresent yung country. Pero kami since naglalaro kami sa UAAP at nag-aaral din kami ngayon, naiisip din namin na hindi kami fully committed doon kasi may ginagawa pa kaming iba (They were saying that they wanted players who were 100% committed to represent the country. But since we are playing in the UAAP and we are also studying, we thought that we cannot be fully committed there because we’re doing other things),” says Espejo. “Pero siyempre para sa amin, opportunity din yun maglaro sa Philippine team. Di lang naming alam kung paano kasi may UAAP pa tsaka school (But of course for us, it is also an opportunity to play for the Philippine team. We just did not know how because we have UAAP and school).”

To add fire to the discussion, Lady Eagles Kat Tolentino and Maddie Madayag were handpicked to be included in the training pool lineups, despite enforcing the qualification to attend the aforementioned tryouts. However, this inconsistency raises the concern that it becomes unfair for the volleyball players who have attended the tryouts, as there is a possibility of addition and removal of players when the pool will be decreased to the 12-man lineup required by the SEA Games.

“They were always announcing that ‘we [LVPI] want players and coaches who are fully committed. And that’s the case, we cannot fully commit because we have Ateneo and me, I have my personal thing and the players have to do good in their academics,” says Coach Almadro. “So it will be unfair for the players who went to the try outs and then train for them, then may [Ateneo players] biglang susulpot.”

Editor’s Note: Details regarding LVPI and Jia Morado’s best setter award have been updated.