“I think that we need some fresh blood, younger and taller players,” Brazilian coach Jorge Souza de Brito’s reply to the volleyball nation of not selecting national team mainstay Alyssa Valdez and even star setter Jia Morado for the upcoming tournaments. 

News came to light announcing that Valdez is officially out of the 25-member pool for the women’s national volleyball team. Some may have been thrilled to see this as a new ‘era’ of new faces to don the international stage and represent the country, but it certainly dismayed a lot of fans and questioned the development.  

Shocking as it may be, it created chaos and debates from left to right on social media. The question now is: was it really the right call? 

Alyssa Valdez has always been the cream of the crop of Philippine volleyball. Whenever the country needed a reliable open hitter and most significantly, a leader, the 28-year-old Valdez has always been there ready to wear the country’s jersey and play it ‘heartstrong’.

She is the go-to person not just by coaches that have mentored her but also by the players who played with her. Valdez played for the Philippines women’s national volleyball team at both the youth and senior levels such as the 2008 Asian Youth Championship, 2015 Asian U23 Championship, 2014 FIVB Southeast Asian Zone Qualifier, several Southeast Asian Games, and many more. 

“I need some fresh players.”

In terms of age, the current national team pool has Rhea Dimaculangan as the oldest team member at 30 years old, while Aby Maraño and Dindin Santiago-Manabat are both 28, the same age as Valdez.

And, the height. Standing 5-foot-9, Valdez does not fall below the average of an impactful volleyball player. 

Plus, whether it’s fresh like a daisy or a long-tall-Sally, we cannot deny the fact that experience brings a big factor in performance and Valdez equips on that. 

Despite the emergence of other spectacular players ahead of her and new players coming out of the shadows, Valdez is still a real deal and a knocker to a team that can carry out blows especially in the crucial and critical times in a match as she showed in the recently concluded first pro-season of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL), where she won the best outside spiker plum and steered Creamline to a silver medal finish.

The point is, there’s absolutely no question for our volleyball federation to invest in young players, but some players such as Alyssa Valdez, Jia Morado, and Kat Arado still deserve to spike for the country once more or even beyond. 

Although the volleyball nation is a hot mess right now, let us not forget to unite in supporting and wishing all of the best for our national team ahead of their international tournaments.