Outgoing Alas Pilipinas Women head coach Jorge Edson Souza De Brito would have wanted to include Creamline players in his pool for the AVC Challenge Cup for Women 2024.
“The players from Creamline were invited. It’s not that they weren’t included; they were invited but they declined,” De Brito told reporters on Wednesday during the Cignal-PNVF partnership event.
“They cannot join the national team now, but maybe in the future, they will.”
The Cool Smashers are usually not ones to turn down the call of national team duty.
However, this time they had to decline.
According to team insiders who requested anonymity, Rebisco, the mother company of Creamline, had long planned a special reward for the Cool Smashers’ double triumph last year.
The reward? A trip to Spain.
It’s known that obtaining a category C short-stay visa to Spain takes a long time.
Once the team received approval earlier this year, they booked the trip for this May.
It was only a week ago when the Philippine National Volleyball Federation signed ink to paper in partnering with the Premier Volleyball League in the formation of Alas Pilipinas Women.
The trip would end up coinciding with the continental meet scheduled from May 22 to 29 at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Hence, only Jia De Guzman will be representing Creamline.
Choco Mucho, on the other hand, loaned Sisi Rondina and Cherry Nunag to Alas.
Rebisco remains committed to helping both the women’s and men’s teams of Alas.