Mission possible

Volleyball overload. The collegiate and professional championship series overlap. A coach was criticized for prioritizing one team over the other. Even TV had to cover one live over the other. The latter not necessarily dead. Just delayed. Dead just the same. Or expired. Still dead.

Sacrifices are made when two good things happen at the same time, without reference to dangerous liaisons where one is good, the other bad. One is love, the other lust that doesn’t last. Or both just lust.

Either league however, the level of game promises better international campaign. More so that the volleyball federation empowered the professional league to select, manage and train the national team. No one knows player caliber better than the platform where these powerful women showcase what they can do. And do better. For a fee. But they remain willing to play for flag and country.

If gate attendance were to gauge, women’s volleyball is now as popular as the men’s basketball. Tickets sell out overnight. Public interest in the sport has grown to never before proportions. And in the players, including their interesting choices in life. Or partners in life.

Their athletic journey follows the script written for basketball men. Plucked from the provinces to play collegiate, segued to professional league and picked for the national team. It works.

Men’s basketball owns the regional games, despite naturalized players from other countries. Even exceeding expectations when they reclaimed the Asiad gold. After six decades. Olympics next. The marvelous men of mostly naturalized and heritage players are yet to qualify. Since 52 years ago when the country last played in Munich.

Although it is distinguished best placed Asian country in the quadrennial games. Fifth in Berlin in 1936, behind the USA, Canada, Mexico and Poland. Some say the Philippines should have placed higher though, a podium finish even, except for an odd scoring system that relegated it to fifth.

Unlike Gilas today, the authentic 10-man Philippine team was largely composed of pure Filipinos. Except for Worrell and Borck, Spanish sounding surnames dominated the team of islanders – Martinez, Padilla, Cruz, Marquicias, Obordo, Marzan, Ouano and Yambao. A testament to colonization. Even the country is named after a Spanish royalty and baptized to Christianity. Or Catholicism. Whichever one succeeded, or failed, to better their believers. We would not have been confused about our identity as a people, had we been left alone. The whole time. We would have been able to define, and defend, what is Filipino interest.

But the yet to be assembled dream team of powerful and well-spoken women knows for sure what they fight for. Assert supremacy in women’s volleyball. Start with the regional games where the country missed the podium since winning bronze in the 2005 edition. World-class Thailand took over. Vietnam and Indonesia too. At least in sports where everyone fights for pride and glory. With equal chance to win. And not for territory. Where we wasted legal leverage to assert sovereignty.