Volleyball has been rising in popularity over the recent years. No doubt, the number of people playing the sport has been increasing, and it is because of that growing love for the sport that the founders of the La Salle Volleyball Club (LSVC) were encouraged to push for the club’s establishment.
The birth of a new club
As the most popular sport in the country, basketball takes precedence over everything, even when it comes to who gets to play on the courts around schools. This is what the officers of the newly established club were experiencing during the special term. “Parati kaming natutulak sa gilid [ng court],” LSVC president Mark Ang shared.
Without the necessary space to play volleyball, Ang and his friends were compelled to go to either the eighth floor or the green space in the ninth floor of the Enrique Razon Sports Complex, where the lights were dim.
“Then dun na na-bring up yung idea na magtayo ng club,” Ang explained. “So iyun, naisip namin…Ang dami na pala natin. Bakit di nalang tayo mag-formal play. Lahat naman tayo may love for volleyball, ba’t di na lang natin i-take to another level.”
They immediately took action, contacting the Office of Sports Development (OSD) to file a request for starting a club. And not long after, they had finished all the paperwork and the club was ready to be established.
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Setting out
Every year, the sports organizations in La Salle are given around a week to recruit new members. And last October 5 to 7, the LSVC underwent its very first recruitment period. Being a new organization, the LSVC officers had to find a way to make their club stand out and reach their goal of 150 members. After giving their all to promote the club, they found themselves overwhelmed as they made it well past their initial target, ending recruitment week with more than 300 members.
Executive Vice President-Externals Earl Abraham explained how the participation of the Lady Spikers in their club promotion and the rising popularity of the sport itself had helped them make the recruitment process a success.
But of course, having too many members during the early stages of the organization may prove to be a challenge in the management of the club. Looking for advice, the officers went to the DLSU-STC OSD director, Mr. Solomon Padiz, who told them to continue taking in members for the moment and to just work their way around the problem when the time comes.
Training sessions
As an organization, managing and planning the activities of the club are crucial to maintaining the enthusiasm and motivation of the members, especially when the club has a massive pool of members.
Serving its main purpose, the club offers its members training sessions that are divided into three levels of difficulty depending on the skills of the members that were assessed.
As of now, the training sessions are scheduled on Wednesdays, from six to nine in the evening, at the Enrique Razon Sports Center, and from one to three in the afternoon at the STC campus courts on Fridays. In addition, the club will soon be having leagues pitting members against one another and they will most likely join tournaments against the volleyball clubs of other schools.
Executive Vice President-Internals Karl Ibardolaza expressed one of the many things that could take fruit out of this, “If matutukan talaga namin, as in pukpukan na yung trainings, someday makare-recruit yung mga varsity teams galing sa club.”
No pain, no gain
The club had faced a lot of dilemmas before and after its founding. Initially, it had encountered an unexpected number of new recruits and with limited access to courts and equipment, members could not play as often as they would want to. Also, while the club can play in the STC campus, the shuttle could not accommodate all the members. Nevertheless, Ibardolaza shared that because of their effective teamwork, they were able to solve these problems.
Regardless of all the hardships they went through, everything that they did was worth the effort. Their courage to step out and create the club was never wasted but rather, it received a good response from the student body. Consequently, they will soon be soon pioneering a united group of volleyball enthusiasts within the campus and as Abraham explained, “Gusto namin maka-build ng isang solid volleyball community. Parang family talaga, hindi lang yung pupunta dun para maglaro. Gusto namin [ng] friends outside the court.”
“If you love something, don’t wait for it to come to you,” Ang concluded. “You have to go out there and look for it yourself.”
