Choco Mucho, mucho gusto!

Sports is definitely not my strong suit (neither is singing, if you must know), and volleyball is not something I have fond memories of. In high school I had to do volleyball for PE, but my favorite position was on the bench, and when I actually had to get on the court, I tried as much as possible to run away from the ball, with my signature call “Yours!” – instead of the more common “Mine!” – to allow someone else to play the ball. But just being on the team enabled me to pass PE, and that’s all I wanted.

My niece, who is now thankfully a professional LPGA-certified golf teacher and coach (surely a less physically brutal sport), was very into volleyball in high school, so much so that in one game she tore her ACL and had to undergo surgery followed by intensive rehab. Back then, in the late 1990s, volleyball was just beginning its popularity climb, with focus on foreign, especially Brazilian, players.

Today, volleyball is hot (hey, even Prince William took a turn at a beach volleyball game in Cornwall the other day) – the sport on the professional and collegiate levels is drawing in the crowds, teams have their die-hard followers and players have their solid fan bases. This season’s UAAP (collegiate level, from where most of the professional players come) and PVL (the professional Premier Volleyball League) conferences are proving to be super crowd drawers. And it’s women’s volleyball that is the more popular; the Spikers Turf men’s league is not similarly packing them in or drawing the same excitement and fan loyalty as the PVL.

I’m happy another sport other than basketball has captured the fancy of Pinoy sports aficionados, although basketball – now that the NBA has entered the playoffs – is still the national obsession. And when the national team Gilas gets reconstituted for the next round of trials for the FIBA, I expect full focus will again be on the hoops.

The popularity of pro volleyball is of course great PR for the corporations behind the teams, especially the top tier ones. The also-rans – there are 12 teams in the PVL – may not get as much exposure, but it’s still good advertising, and an investment for a future publicity payday.

Maintaining a team doesn’t come cheap though, especially if you’re aiming to recruit the best players, even from the collegiate league. You also want a good coaching staff – the head coach is backed up by a team of at least six on the bench at every game – as well as training, equipment, regular practice… all that costs a pretty penny. One of the teams that made it to the final four reportedly has a war chest of about P100 million for the year (that’s three conferences). I guess that’s still peanuts compared to the budgets of the PBA teams, easily in the hundreds of millions.

But the teams in the PVL are certainly the ones getting their money’s worth, with onsite attendance nearing 20,000 for “hot” games, plus a great many more watching on TV. Compare that to a recent PBA game that reportedly drew a total audience of 98. Even games in the early elimination stages of the PVL drew a bigger crowd than that.

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Last Thursday I joined the screaming thousands at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum for the first game of the finals between Choco Mucho and Creamline, as well as the earlier game for third place between Chery Tiggo and Petrogazz. To describe the atmosphere in that cavernous arena as electric would be an understatement; the drums and screams and cheers were deafening. We got in during the third set of the Chery Tiggo-Petrogazz match, and it was a cliffhanger as Chery took the first and fourth sets before losing in a heartbreak fifth set.

The quality of play among the four teams is exceptional, so that at the end of the elimination round, any one of them could be champions. It’s nothing personal against perennial crowd favorite Creamline, but it’s not good for the league, or the sport, for a team to be so dominant that the result of each game and each tournament would be a foregone conclusion.

That’s why this edition of the PVL is so exciting. In the elimination round, not one but two teams humbled the seven-time champion Creamline. First to do so was Chery Tiggo, led by Abby Maraño and her array of hair clips, plus the Laure sisters (although they didn’t make it to the finals, I hope the usually taciturn Eya Laure will see their performance as reason enough to smile) and my favorite libero Jen Nierva (who, unfortunately, seems to have sustained an injury in Thursday’s game; I hope she’s OK). Then it was Petrogazz with the formidable Brooke Van Sickle with her twin long braids and Jonah Sabete who dealt the crowd favorite their second loss.

And finally, in the semifinal round, Choco Mucho made their 13th meeting the one when they finally creamed Creamline in four sets. So now the sister teams – both are owned by Rebisco of Jacinto Ng, who watches games with his signature bi-colored jacket, one half purple for Choco Mucho and the other half pink for Creamline – are duelling for the crown.

Which brought me to the Smart-Araneta Coliseum last Thursday night. Our courtside seats (thanks to my brother’s golfing connections with Rebisco’s manager of the two teams, who spent the match moving from one side to the other) put us in the middle of the screams and cheers. A family in front of us – parents and a 12-year-old boy and five-year-old girl – were garbed in purple; even the little girl’s hair ties were purple. The boy turned around to ask which team I was for and beamed the brightest smile when I said, “Choco Mucho siyempre!” Behind us were a group of vociferous ka-pink women.

Unfortunately the match did not end they way we wanted, but I take my hat off to the Choco Mucho players, particularly hands down the best player of the league, Sisi Rondina. And before the pink Smashers start raining down curses on me, let me give a shout-out too to Creamline’s Tots Carlos, who not only plays well but plays smart (not surprising, since she’s from UP). Tomorrow I expect Sisi and the Flying Titans to redeem themselves and take the finals series to a third game on Tuesday, and who knows? Si si, Choco Mucho, mucho gusto!