By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

 

SELDOM can we can find a female professional athlete really willing to give back to her community by promoting her chosen sport, organizing the tournaments for the game she loves so much among her fellow athletes in Pangasinan specially from her hometown. Fortunately, my beloved town Mangaldan luckily found another new sports patron, in the 27-year-old Roselyn Doria of Barangay Maasin, the Cignal volleyball team’s standout!

I was in Barangay Maasin afternoon of December 28 and watched the 3^rd Annual Roselyn Doria Thanksgiving One Day Volleyball League conducted at Maasin Covered Court with the blessings of barangay captain Flori Abalos. Ten teams a participated: Manaoag, San Jacinto, Asingan, Mapandan, Mangaldan Volleyball Association, Judge Jose de Venecia, Labney, Phoenix and the little-known Mixed Team. The five-foot-eleven Doria explained to this writer that unlike the first two years of the tourney exclusively for men, the format this year was done for women only. Her objective was to give the women a chance to develop in the sport and it was done in two brackets through a single round-robin system.

Like in the past two years, Doria said the annual tourney was done during yuletide season and officiated by volleyball skilled teachers of Region 1. Doria, a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, 2022 graduate  of National University, said cash prizes and trophies were at stake and the champion pocketed P7,000, P5,000 for the first runner-up, and P3,000 for the second runner-up. The annual tourney was organized under the auspices of Cignal and Augie Cadua as team owner.

I failed to watch the full hostilities of the tourney as I had to be home to beat my deadline. As I write this piece, I received the report from one of the top officials of the game that the lowly rated Mixed Team won the championship and beat the Phantom of Mapandan. The highly rated Golden Warriors landed third. MVP (Most Valuable Player) was Bebs Narciso.

Admittedly, volleyball is not so popular sport among my Mangaldan townmates except in Barangay Maasin. In fact, Doria has also a beautiful sister like her named Janette who stands 6’1” and also a volleyball player. But I firmly believe that if this yearly tourney continues to run under the organization of Doria, this beloved town of mine will produce another volleyball standout soon, like it did to cycling.  Mangaldan is the only town in the entire archipelago that produced four national Tour champions (so far) in the two-wheeled event. There were the two Cariño brothers Samson under my tutelage and Ruben and their distant relative El Joshua Cariño under the mentorship of the two-time Olympian (1992 Barcelona and 2000 Sydney) Jazy Fernandez Garcia, my only cycling son.  Although my town Mangaldan has yet to produce a PBA player, I’m confident that it will happen in volleyball. I hope Doria will continue to conduct volleyball tourneys in our beloved town every year.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her; EPHESIANS 5: 22, 23, 24, 25

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