MUCH as I used to like basketball for a long period that I have been into sportswriting, I have to be honest that my interest in the PBA has gone down a bit.

This is the result of it becoming practically a two club team and the player drafting not working anymore as intended, the strong teams becoming stronger, the weaker ones remaining weak.

It was around 2016 that my interest in another sport, women’s volleyball, started growing, and I was watching live games the way I watched the PBA before.

More so when I got involved for awhile with Foton as a teambuilding facilitator in 2018.

I realized too that the sport was then catching up with the popularity of basketball. Just watch the UAAP women’s volleyball crowds especially with Ateneo, La Salle, and now NU packing them in.

I was following more the Pilipinas Super Liga (PSL) but I also felt it was better for the sport that finally, there is only one commercial league in the sport now, a professional one at that, with the Premier Volleyball League ( PVL) as the surviving league.

Last weekend, thanks to getting accredited to cover the PVL, thanks to media colleague Rhea Navarro, back for good here after a long 12 year stay in Qatar, I made it to the opening day of the PVL at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, my old haunting grounds with the PBA in the 80s and 90s.

Playing that day were two of the most popular teams against separate opponents. Choco Mucho was up against the Dindin Manabat-Santiago reinforced Akari while Creamline played Petro Gazz, also the league’s most popular players, former lovebirds Jema Galanza of Creamline and Deanna Wong from Choco Mucho.were there.

That was why I was not surprised at all at the size of the crowd inside Araneta Coliseum, reminiscent of the PBA in its heydays.

Sat beside Rhea as we exchanged memories of our early days as sportswriters, me from Sports Weekly, while she was from Champ, both popular sports magazines then.

I will not talk about game scores, you people know already that Choco Mucho and Creamline posted similar 3-0 wins over their opponents.

What Rhea and I were discussing were the sidelights.

For one, I told her before, we used to interview the fathers then playing in the PBA, now I have already interviewed three. of the four ex-PBA players’ daughters, EJ and Eya Laure , both with Chery Tigo. Father is Eddie, then Fritz Gaston’s youngest daughter Ponggay, who just transferred from Choco Mucho to Chery Tigo this year, and Akari’s Dani Ravena, whose father is Bong and mother is Akari team manager Mozzy, an ex-volleyball player, too.

Too bad Ponggay did not see action last Tuesday against Cignal, though her team won. I respect that it is the call of the coach as to who he will field, but am just wondering that Chery made a big announcement when it got Ponggay and the expectation of course is that she will see a lot of action.

Rhea and I were wondering too if Coach Oliver Almadro will go the same way as Joe Lipa in basketball.

Joe was a very good collegiate coach but when he went up to the pros, he found it a tougher nut to crack.

Just last conference, Coach O quit mentoring Choco Mucho.

Sscuttlebutt was the players did not see eye to eye with the coaching style of their coach, more fitted I heard for collegiate players but not for pros.

The team was not winning despite a very good line-up and a lot of fans were putting the blame on the coach.

.Anyway, his new team, Petro Gazz also suffered a 3-0 loss to Creamline, and am sure it will set more tongues wagging.

Had a chance to ask Alyssa Valdes on her recovery from a leg injury suffered last year. SHe said the doctors were happy about the progress she has been making, but nothing definite on her return.

I also went to the press room after the first game and asked Maddie Madayag, who played her first game after a long lay off due to an ACL injury I believe but still emerged Player of the Game, the difference between playing for new coach Dante Alinsunurin and Coach O.

She had a safe answer with coach Dante beside her.

According to her, since she has been gone for a long time , she could not honestly answer the question

And yes, I realized I asked the right question but she was the wrong player to ask.

Now I know am getting back to my old old interest, and I intend to be at the PVL whenever I can.

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