It has been two months since I arrived here in Singapore. And I flew here not to work but to try-out for International Kakis Volleyball Team-Singapore. Getting in the team means having the privilege to play in international volleyball tournaments. Mr. Samuel Wong heads and coaches the team.

International Kakis Volleyball Team (Singapore)

You can learn more about Team Kakis from there http://www.internationalkakis.com/ website. To give you an idea, here’s what they do (taken from their website):

Mission:
1. Mass participation
2. Raise the level of play
3. Promote the game volleyball within the region.

International Kakis Volleyball Sport Club is a non profit making volleyball sport club located in Singapore and registered with the Volleyball Association of Singapore. The objectives of having this club is to provide a place for the foreign and local volleyball players to train and play and this will eventually benefit and improve the skill level of the local players. This will also allow the foreign volleyball players to continue playing volleyball while they are staying, working or studying in Singapore.

The AVP was established in 1983 and is comprised of the best men’s and women’s pro beach volleyball players in the U.S. and arguably, the world. The AVP’s main goal is to deliver its fans the experience of an amazing athletic contest surrounded by an unforgettable beach party. More than one million people are expected to attend an AVP event every year. On May 31, 2001 the AVP was reorganized with a new management team led by agent Leonard Armato and his company Management Plus. When they announced the acquisition of the tour in Manhattan Beach, Calif. they made a historic move by uniting both men and women professional beach volleyball players under one umbrella organization. With this historic unification of the men’s and women’s competitions, the “new” AVP Tour has been able to capitalize on having one property that could maximize sponsor dollars, marketing opportunities, media coverage and prize money. The AVP now stands alone as the only pro beach volleyball tour in the US and has a cooperative relationship with USA Volleyball and the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB).

Here are some beach volleyball action during the 2008 AVP Crocs Slam McDonald’s Chicago Open presented by Nautica. The tandem of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won this particular tourney. Photos were taken by kababayan Conrad Castelo, a talented photographer who resides in Chicago. Enjoy:

China vs. Netherlands

Last night, as I watched the game of China and Netherlands in the annual Montreux Volley Masters, I can’t help but to be impressed at how China can even keep their volleyball level up even with the loss of some key players. But then again who wouldn’t even be energized? Kun Feng is back, the team’s key player and is probably the biggest factor why they won the Athens Olympics. The Dynamic Duo of Manon Flier and Chaine Staelens was not a factor in this game due to the fact that the Chinese defense is at them be it blocking and floor defense. Hao Yang, the powerful attacker that we know of her, is at it again, scoring big points with the help of a new face in Yanni Zhao. Woah. Yanni Zhao is just a rising talent at 20 and yet, she was the big factor why China won the 2nd set, 32-30. Her quicks and running spikes are to die for! It caught the Dutch defense off-guard. Hao Yang of course, can’t quite score in down the line spikes but scored well in cross court shots. Suhong Zhou, though old, had numerous points as well, and her floor defense is still the same as before despite her age. Yimei Wang was shuffled in that game as instead of playing middle, she played utility and open. Still no worries, as the young Chinese scored points as well. Ah. The magic of Kun Feng. She can make anybody score!

China defeated Netherlands in 3 straight sets: 25-22, 32-30, 25-19. The game took place last Friday (June 6, 2008). You can see the complete stats over here.

Photo by Philipp Reinmann

2008 Montreux Volley Masters

The Montreux Volley Masters happened last June 4-8 in Montreux, Switzerland. The tournament was participated by the following teams: China, Cuba, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Serbia. Here are the final rankings:

1. Cuba (5-0)
2. China (4-1)
3. Italy (3-2)
4. Netherlands (2-3)
5. Germany (1-4)
6. Serbia (0-5)

See the game results over here. You can watch selected games over here. All info taken from the official http://www.volleymasters.ch/ website.

Sadly, the Philippines is only participating on the Asian Youth Girls’ Volleyball Championships. We have no representatives to other events, well, as of now. How can we improve the level of plays of our teams if we are not participating in the international stage?

Here are the upcoming volleyball events in Asia. Taken from the official Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC website):

Volleyball competitions for 2008:

• Asian Women’s Volleyball Club Champ (June 1-8, 2008)
  venue: Vinh Phuc, Vietnam
• Asian Men’s Volleyball Club Champ (July 17-25, 2008)
  venue: Almaty Kazakhstan
• Asian Junior Men’s Volleyball Champ (August 23-31, 2008)
  venue: Tehran Iran
• Asian Junior Women’s Volleyball Champ (September 20-28, 2008)
  venue: Chinese Taipei
• 1st AVC Men’s Cup (September 20-26, 2008)
  venue: Ratchasima Thailand
• 1st AVC Women’s Cup (October 1-8, 2008)
  venue: Ratchaburi Thailand
• Asian Youth Girls’ Volleyball Champ (October 11-18, 2008)
  venue: Philippines
• Asian Youth Boys’ Volleyball Champ (October 14-21, 2008)
  venue: Colombo Sri Lanka

Team Philippines in the Asian Youth Volleyball tournaments

Our volleyball teams (for both boys’ and girls’ divisions) have been competing in the Asian Youth Volleyball competitions in the past. But this was a long time ago. According to the AVC website, here’s our not so good history in the tournament: We placed last and 8th place during the 1996 Asian Youth Girls’ held in Thailand. Last and 8th place during the 1997 Asian Youth Boys’ held in the Philippines. Last and 8th place during the 1998 Asian Youth Girls’ held in Singapore. Last and 8th place during the 1999 Asian Youth Boys’ held in Taiwan.

After years of disappointing finishes, team Philippines did not join the competition from year 2000 up until 2001. Then on 2002, we competed once more but placed last and 8th place during the 2002 Asian Youth Girls’ held in Thailand. In 2004, we did improve a bit by finishing at 8th place (out of 9 teams total) by beating India in the 2004 Asian Youth Girls’ held in Cebu, Philippines.

You can check all these info over here.

As you can see from the AVC’s calendar of competitions above, Philippines will be hosting the 2008 Asian Youth Girls’ Volleyball Championships this October. Since we’re hosting it, I suppose we are going to join this tournament once more. So this also means that a girl’s volleyball team for Philippines should have already been formed at this point, and are practicing for the tournament.

Japan, Korea, China, Chinese Taipei, and Thailand are currently the top 5 teams (respectively) in the Asian Youth Girls’ Volleyball tournament. I know most of us think that volleyball in the Philippines has been improving over the years and will continue to do so over time. So do you think we have a chance of at least making it in the top 5 this year?

I compiled these data from the FIVB website. Let’s take a look on our standing and also of our neighboring countries here in South East Asia, the rest of the continent, and the rest of the world.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL SENIORS (as of January 5, 2008)

The Philippines Ranks number 74 along with 10 countries which includes Norway, England, and Austria, all garnering a total of 4.5 points. This is a very far cry from the number 1 country, which happens to be Brazil with 235 points. Let’s see how our Asian neighbors did this past year:

• Rank 6 China with 142.5 points
• Rank 8 Japan 120.25 points
• Rank 11 Korea 74.5 points
• Ranks 18 Thailand 33 points
• Rank 70 Vietnam 5 points

Of the top 10, 5 countries are from Europe, 2 from Asia and South America has 1, and North America has 2 (Cuba & USA). We actually dropped way down because the Philippine position of the previous year was at number 54! I personally viewed this as the result of our lacking of international exposures, including our failure to show up during the last SEA Games. But hey, women’s volleyball is doing good nowadays. Let’s just cross our fingers!!

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL SENIORS (as of January 5, 2008)

The male counterparts of our volleyballes landed on the 72th position together with 8 nations including Albania, Jordan and Ghana garnering a total of 5.3points. Brazil also topped the list acquiring 260points, which made their country a solid force o remember. We also dropped from the previous 64th place, I believed for the same reasons as the women’s division. Here are the other Asian countries on the list:

• Rank 12 Japan 67 points
• Rank 16 Korea 46 points
• Rank 21 China 37.5 points
• Rank 28 Thailand 20 points
• Rank 39 Indonesia 11.8 points
• Rank 104 Vietnam 2 points

No Asian country made it to the top 10, 6 countries from Europe took 6, South America has 3, and North America got 1.

For both seniors division, we can notice that that China, Japan and Korea, which are the traditional sports powers, are still the teams to beat in the whole continent. Meanwhile, Thailand is still the kings and queens of the net in the ASEAN region. Philippines lagging behind Vietnam in the women’s and Indonesia in the men’s division respectively.

WOMEN’S DIVISION
My Bets:

Brazil (1) vs Russia (5) (Gold Medal Match)

China (6) vs Italy (2) (Bronze Medal Match)

Of course I’m considering Team Cuba (3) and USA (4) as darkhorses for the womens division.

The complete list of Teams who will join the 2008 Beijing Olympics Women’s Indoor Volleyball Competition:

• Brazil (1) – 2nd Place in 2007 World Cup
• Italy (2) - Champion in 2007 World Cup
• Cuba (3) – North and Central American Confederation Champion
• USA (4) – 3rd Place in 2007 World Cup
• Russia (5) – European Confederation Champion
• China (6) – Host Country
• Algeria (21) – African Confederation Champion
• Venezuela (29) – South American Confederation Champion
• TBD – Asian Confederation Champion (to be contested by Japan (8), Korea (11), Kazakhstan (16) and Thailand (18) on May 17-25, 2008)
• TBD – 1st Place in World Qualifying Tournament (to be contested by Serbia (7), Japan (8), Poland (9), Korea (11), Dominican Republic (14), Kazakhstan (16), Thailand (18) and Puerto Rico (19) on May 17-25, 2008
• TBD – 2nd Place in World Qualifying Tournament (to be contested by Serbia (7), Japan (8), Poland (9), Korea (11), Dominican Republic (14), Kazakhstan (16), Thailand (18) and Puerto Rico (19) on May 17-25, 2008
• TBD – 3rd Place in World Qualifying Tournament (to be contested by Serbia (7), Japan (8), Poland (9), Korea (11), Dominican Republic (14), Kazakhstan (16), Thailand (18) and Puerto Rico (19) on May 17-25, 2008

MEN’S DIVISION
For the Mens Division Brazil (1) must prepare (as in) to defend their title from powerhouse teams like Serbia (8), Italy (10) and Russia (2).

The complete list of Teams who will join the 2008 Beijing Olympics Men’s Indoor Volleyball Competition:

• Brazil (1) – Champion in 2007 World Cup
• Russia (2) – 2nd Place in 2007 World Cup
• USA (3) – North and Central American Confederation Champion
• Bulgaria (4) – 3rd Place in 2007 World Cup
• Serbia (8) – European Confederation Champion
• Egypt (14) – African Confederation Champion
• Venezuela (20) – South American Confederation Champion
• China (21) – Host Country
• TBD – Asian Confederation Champion (to be contested by Australia (11), Japan (12), Korea (16), Iran (26) and Thailand (28) on May 31-June 8, 2008)
• TBD – 1st Place in Düsseldorf, Germany World Qualifying Tournament (to be contested by Spain (6), Cuba (17), Germany (19) and Chinese Taipei (39) on May 23-25, 2008)
• TBD – 1st Place in Espinho, Portugal World Qualifying Tournament (to be contested by Poland (5), Puerto Rico (8), Indonesia (39) and Portugal (39) on May 30-June 1, 2008)
• TBD – 1st Place in Tokyo, Japan World Qualifying Tournament (to be contested by Argentina (6), Italy (10), Australia (11), Japan (12), Korea (16), Iran (26), Thailand (28) and Algeria (60)