LAOAG, ILOCOS NORTE - It is the proverbial calm before the storm, the resurrection of Philippine volleyball as two days from now, the country's first-ever professional volleyball league finally commences.
On Saturday, the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) holds the sport's first sanctioned matches in the Philippines since March 2020. The Inter-Agency Task Force and the local government of Ilocos Norte have left no stone unturned to ensure not only the realization of this effort by organizer Sportsvision, Inc. and united governing body Philippine National Volleyball Federation, but also the health and safety of the 10 teams plunging into action as well as the over 100 individuals tasked to perform duties as officials, statisticians, reporters, and broadcast personnel.
This city of Laoag is located roughly 400 kilometers north of Metro Manila and everyone taking part in the 2021 PVL Open Conference traveled by bus. Teams came in from their respective "bubble" training across Luzon while the league delegation - which includes referees, lines-folk, security, media, and TV production teams - departed last Monday from the Fariñas Bus Terminal in Manila. The PLDT Home Fibr Hitters were there as well and all in all, three buses embarked on what usually is a nine-hour northward voyage.
Right off the bat, however, some issues propped up as the passenger manifest had some additions and subtractions that had to be dealt with prior to departure. After a three-hour delay, the buses left at exactly 12 noon with the instructions of ensuring convoy and not stopping at any point. All passengers made sure to stock up on food and each bus had its own comfort room.
By the time the party cleared the expansive expressways, trouble re-appeared in La Union capital San Fernando when PLDT's bus suffered mechanical trouble and had to pull over. This delay of more than an hour was finally resolved by the combined efforts of all the drivers' experience as mechanics.
It was well into nightfall when we arrived at the first quarantine checkpoint in Ilocos Sur and it was revealed that there were still mismatches in the passenger manifests. That issue took nearly another hour to resolve (thanks to lack of internet signal and - yes - a language barrier between Tagalog and Ilokano). By the time the buses arrived at the second checkpoint at the Ilocos Norte border, the requirements of individual RT-PCR results held up the party again as some results had not yet been transmitted (still due to the lack of internet signal). Wouldn't you know it? It took, yes, an hour to be sorted out.
By the time we finally arrived at the Fort Ilocandia Hotel, it was almost midnight and most of the food there had already been consumed. Still, an antigen test had to be administered to all passengers and those results had to be awaited.
That was far from the finish line, apparently. The first two buses to arrive - containing league officials, TV crew, and media - were then directed to reboard as not everyone was staying at Fort Ilocandia. Only the PLDT Home Fibr bus remained.
It took another fifteen minutes through dark, winding roads before the two well-traveled buses finally arrived at their destination: the Java Hotel, a posh, Indonesian-inspired inn owned by the Fariñas family.
After checking in at 1 a.m. the next day, the contingent finally had its first decent meal since leaving Manila. It was satisfying, most definitely, but the travel took its toll and everybody longed for their rooms.
Giving a few hours for well-deserved sleep, breakfast was then served in the hotel's Eagle's Nest Restaurant. All meals, always a substantial amount of food with the Ilokano trademark healthy heaping of vegetables, came in packed boxes.
The five members of the media here always assemble during meals, joined by Sportsvision brass Ricky Palou and Tournament Director Tony Boy Liao, who have both opted to be billeted here. Both gentlemen are quite open to the members of the media and have kept us up to speed on the progress of the endeavor leading up to opening day at the PCV Socio-Civic and Cultural Center in the town of Bacarra instead of the city's Centennial Arena.
There will be one more RT-PCR test to go before the opener and several antigen tests in between matches to safeguard all involved.
Over at Fort Ilocandia, the Perlas Spikers were the last team to arrive after their training ended in Baguio City. The squad will not have onetime UP pillar Kathy Bersola due to medical school time issues. She will be replaced by 6-foot middle blocker Cherry Nunag.
The Philippine Army Lady Troopers, now backed by Black Mamba energy drink, and the Sta. Lucia Lady Realtors have each brought a 16-woman delegation and will be adjusting their roster to 14 prior to each assignment.
Three-time Open Conference titlists Creamline Cool Smashers will be without veteran winger Fille Cainglet-Cayetano while Chery Tiggo has pulled the biggest surprise thus far by "unretiring" assistant coach Tina Salak and including her in their 15-woman rotation.
Many of the players have already posted their Fort Ilocandia pictures on social media and yes, it does feel how it looks: it's still quite chill. However, with a harrowing schedule of six game days a week as well as training in between, all teams understand that this will become an official business trip sooner than later.
What's important, however, is that volleyball is back and come Saturday, the 2021 PVL Open Conference will finally bring back this long dormant sport into the limelight with competition never seen before.