Top players give up slot in Phl volley team

Every athlete’s dream is to play for flag and country in the international arena. It is not the case in volleyball.

A pair of notable college players – University of Santo Tomas’ Mark Gil Alfafara and College of St. Benilde’s Johnvic de Guzman – gave up their slots in the national men’s volleyball team in favor of playing for their respective clubs.

“Alfafara already declined the invitation for Philippine team. He replied to me to look for a replacement,” Phl team coach Oliver Almandro told The STAR Friday night.

“He told me he has no time for Philippine team because he wants to concentrate with his club teams and he is competing in a local beach volley tournament.”

De Guzman followed suit yesterday.

“His (St. Benilde) coach (Arnold Laniog) and I were convincing him to join but he answered he will stick with his club teams also,” said Almandro.

Alfafara was part of the team submitted by Almandro to form the squad seeing action in the Asian Under-23 Men’s Championship from May 12-20 in Myanmar and the 28th Southeast Asian Games from June 5-16 in Singapore.

De Guzman, for his part, was part of the Asian Under-23 pool bound for Myanmar.

The other members of the SEAG team with Alfafara were Marck Espejo, Ish Polvorosa, Rex Intal, Timmy Santo Tomas, AJ Pareja, Sandy Montero, Ysay Marasigan, Josh Villanueva, Al Nakram Abdilla and Peter Torres.

Other members of the pool were Eduard Camposano, Angelo Torres, Bonjomar Castel, Howard Mojica, Romnick Rico, Ishmael John Rivera, Manuel Sumanguid III, Renz Melgar, Greg Dolor and Brendan Santos.

Players are caught in the crossfire between the Larong Volleyball ng Pilipinas, Inc., the new national sports association for volleyball, and the defunct Philippine Volleyball Federation, which saw its Securities and Exchange Commission registration revoked recently.

Almandro’s team is the one being formed by the LVPI while the PVF has its own women’s and men’s volleyball teams that Alfafara and De Guzman belonged to.

But it looks like there will be more withdrawals.

“We’re still convincing some players to join. But I fear the possibility that there could be more begging off from accepting national team duties,” said Almandro.

Ironically, some players of the women’s team like Aby Marano, Alyssa Valdez, Dindin Santiago-Manabat among others have agreed to wear national colors despite their busy schedules.