Castillo tight-lipped on leaving coaching spot at NU volleyball

MANILA, Philippines – Babes Castillo remains mum on the reason behind his sudden exit from the National University women’s volleyball team.

The outspoken mentor said he would rather keep his mouth shut while the Lady Bulldogs prepare an official statement about the coaching change that came with barely a month left before Season 81 of the UAAP volleyball tournament.

Nobody saw Castillo’s exit coming.

After being tapped as replacement for seasoned mentor Roger Gorayeb last year, Castillo led the Lady Bulldogs to a sizzling start, winning six of their first seven matches in the first round of Season 80.

But everything went downhill from there as NU won only once in the second round and huffed and puffed into the Final Four, where it was crushed by champion De La Salle University.

The off-season was equally stormy as setter Jasmine Nabor and spiker Jorelle Singh were cut from the squad.

Sources revealed that former De La Salle University coach Norman Miguel is now manning the bench and would be formally appointed as head coach in the next couple of days.

Still, Castillo would rather not talk about it.

“Regarding sa NU, I cannot comment on that,” said Castillo, who had his own share of controversy after figuring in a heated word war with Gorayeb shortly after assuming the coaching chore.

“I really cannot tell you anything right now. They have yet to release any official statement so I won’t say anything for the meantime.”

But everything is not yet lost for Castillo.

He already reached an agreement with Sta. Lucia, which is coming off a winless campaign in the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference last month.

In fact, he already presided a couple of trainings and tryouts in a bid to surpass the forgettable performance of George Pascua last season.

“They just told me to bring the team up in the ranking,” he said, adding that they were working out even during the Christmas season.

“There should be no holidays. Everybody wants to win so we have to come up with little sacrifices.”