MANILA, Philippines – Building off the momentum of successful events recently, Beach Volleyball Republic (BVR) found pivotal support from the Larong Volleyball ng Pilipinas Inc.
Charo Soriano, one of the BVR founders, has staged a yearlong beach volley event from all over the country, and it culminated with the staging of the BVR National Championships at the Sands MOA by the Bay in Pasay City and the BVR International at Anguib Beach in Sta. Ana, Cagayan Valley recently, which praises from LVPI.
"Yes, we will definitely support them (BVR)," said LVPI board member and NCAA Management Committee member Peter Cayco of Arellano U. "They're doing a good job in promoting beach volleyball."
Cayco said LVPI and BVR will team up with more programs in the near future.
"Actually, we sat down with Charo (Soriano) last week and after this tournament we'll be discussing more ways we can continue promoting beach volleyball," said Cayco.
Under Soriano and fellow founders Bea Tan, Dzi Gervacio and Gretchen Ho, BVR has established a Philippine National Tour and most recently the BVR Invitational where teams like Brazil’s Erica Adachi and Rupia Inck, United States, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore joined.
Most notably, the Invitational was the first international beach volleyball event sanctioned by the LVPI.
Gaining the LVPI's support, BVR was able to invite the international players to the Invitational without a hitch.
Soriano said they are happy to have LVPI by their side.
“We are very fortunate to have the support of various stakeholders in our effort to build sustainable programs for Philippine beach volleyball. Mr. Tony Liao has been a great mentor in terms of tournament formats and technicalities for BVR events. And now, having LVPI support us will be of great help in providing a solid platform for these programs,” said Soriano.
Alongside the tournaments, BVR is developing a Sandroots program for the next generation of beach volleyball players.
With plenty of events in the pipeline, BVR getting the backing of LVPI should greatly help their vision of growing a local beach volleyball culture.