For a group that had started just earlier this year, getting a nationally-televised tournament with loads of sponsors and great competition is an amazing first step.
Last weekend, Beach Volleyball Republic took that giant first step, holding its first Women’s Open Tournament at the SM Sands by the Bay with the semifinals and championship matches shown live on ABS-CBN Sports and Action last Sunday.
Aiming to establish a community around beach volleyball, BVR is still in the beginning stages of what it envisions for the sport says Bea Tan, one of the group’s founders.
“We really just wanted people to see how fun beach volleyball is – give them great games – and I think we were successful in that. We know we’re at the beginning of this (establishing beach volleyball), we know we have so many things to improve on but we were surprised at how receptive and open people were when pitch to them what we’re about, what we believe in. At some point they start believing in it to and that’s just very heart-warming. We’re just really thankful to everyone who helped us.”
For a country with countless beautiful beaches, beach volleyball is seamless fit. BVR aims to further promote sport through grassroots programs and multiple events around the country. This year, the ladies have toured different provinces, building beach volleyball courts and teaching kids the sport everywhere they went.
“We teach the constituents in every LGU we partner up with alongside that, we give them an exhibition game to keep their interest up on beach volleyball – to inspire them that they can be as good as anyone of they start training for it. So we build the community” added Tan.
BVR is also looking to create a National Beach Volleyball Circuit by next year to expose as much talent as it can and fortify the community. “It’ll still be an invitational tournament just like this, just to get more people interested. Because if we do that, we better the competition here and we better the interest in playing the sport. We really just want to spread the love for the sport and hopefully we get people as passionate about it as we are,” Tan expressed.
During the BVR Open, Tan was not only an organizer; the former Ateneo Lady Eagle had also competed. Paired with Brazilian Rupia Inck, Tan earned an elusive championship. Having competed in multiple tournaments before, Tan admitted that organizing the event helped her relax while she was on the court.
“I’ve played in so many other tournaments and I’ve never won. Even when my opponents would unfortunately get injured or we would be up by a lot of points, I’d still lose. It was just mental for me, I just have a tendency to over think. Here, me being one of the organizers, it helped me just chill when I was playing. I thought I was more relaxed when I played just because I had to take care of a lot of things once I was out of the court.”
Tan also credited a lesson she learned from her alma mate, Ateneo for helping her cope with wearing multiple hats. “Ateneo taught us Magis – to never sacrifice one thing to be good at another. We should be excellent at all things. It really applies to what we’re trying to do – be athletes and advocates at the same time.”
