15. How did you get to play for Team Klownz?
Lito Alejandria (part owner owner of Klownz comedy bar) is a close friend of mine. He was our manager during our early volleyball years. And then he suddenly disappeared and went abroad for a reason I don’t know. And when he came back after 6 years, he met us up and made the “kamustahan”. Aisa told him the news about the National Open, and since he’s also a volleyball enthusiast they decided to create a team. Since he’s willing to discuss it to his co-owner Allan K, they decided to have an open try-out, and there I attended the try-out and luckily, out of almost 50 players from different schools who attended that day, I made it to the top 15.

16. What kind of feeling has National Open experience brought to you?
At first of course it brought pressure because it’s been several years since the last time I had serious training and work out and my body is not in good condition coz seriously after my volleyball years in UP, I ate a lot and that’s the reason why I got big tummy and gained weight hehehe! But I challenged myself to work out and condition my mind and body. It was really fun joining in this prestigious tournament and I must say it’s really challenging to play and compete with different teams from different schools and its really an honor also to compete with the AFP teams (Army, Airforce and Navy) because everybody knows the most of their players became members and some of them are still members of our national volleyball team.

17. Not everyone expected that a newbie team would be able to reach the finals match but Klownz did. What was your motivation?
When you heard “Klownz team joining in the national open.” I honestly tell you even me, if I heard that name the first thing that will pop out in my mind is “what the heck is this team? Are they serious?” Members of team klownz were also varsity players from different schools so the skills were already there but conditioning it is another thing. We were all given benefits and same privileges here that’s why we all agreed to pay it back by attending practices and trainings, getting ourselves committed and dedicated to our team and abiding the teams rules to reach the common objective. It is how you take things. If we didn’t take it seriously, we will never reach the finals.

18. Do you still get nervous every time you play? How do you get rid of that feeling?
Getting nervous, I think, is natural to a volleyball player. What matter is how you deal with it. Right Mind setting and determination are the things that you need to overcome it. Every time I serve, dig, block and spike, I always give my best as if it the last game in my life.

19. Team Klownz was able to get the attention of volleyball fanatics and they (including me) liked your team. But still, there were critics. There were instructive comments, but some seems like underestimating your team’s capabilities. How were you able to get through all these?
One thing that I wanna say about it is that I don’t easily get something in my system. it’s them who think that way, it’s their right and I won’t blame them anyway for being so. I will just use it (those criticisms) as my motivation instead. I don’t live to please them, for all I care. I’ll just give them a smile.

20. What was your greatest UAAP moment?
Honestly, I would consider every UAAP game the greatest but if I’m going to zoom in with one, that would be the Championship game against FEU. Though we lost the game and and it was really a heartbreaking moment, my teammates and I still managed to hug each other and say to ourselves “this is not the end of everything”, yes, i believe that it’s not the end of everything, for me winning doesn’t really lie on the bagging the champion trophy but on how you learn to accept the defeat and gracefully get up and move on. I am just happy now that all us in our batch graduated with the degree. And I know someday we will see each other again talking about those moments with sweet smiles on our faces.

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