PH volley federation to bring in foreign coaches

The Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) has already set lofty expectations for the national team upon its formation.

Among its targets are to end the Philippines' volleyball gold-medal drought in the Southeast Asian Games by 2023 and to see both the men's and women's teams crack the top 8 in Asia within the next two years.

To achieve those, PNVF president Ramon Suzara wants to bring in a coach from volleyball powerhouse Brazil to help the national team improve.

Brazil currently ranks No. 1 and No. 3 in the men's and women's divisions, respectively, in the FIVB world rankings.

"We have to open our doors to foreign coaches. There are a lot of foreign coaches from Brazil, Italy, Serbia," Suzara said in the recent Philippine Sportswriters' Association Forum.

"I want the Brazilian coaches to be the head coach for the next two years, transfer their knowledge to our national team coach, and this will be very good. We will learn a lot."

Suzara argued that top Asian teams like South Korea and Japan have tapped the services of foreign coaches from Europe and South America.

For example, the South Korean women's team has an Italian head coach in Stefano Lavarini, while the Japanese men's team has a French assistant coach in Philippe Blaine.

"We have learned a lot from Japanese, Chinese, and Korean coaches already," Suzara said.

"Let us change the strategy [and] learn from South American coaches and European coaches in the future." – Rappler.com