Josh Ybañez is eager to further hone his game during Alas Pilipinas’ two-week training camp in Italy, part of the national team’s build-up for the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship, set for September next year.
Last Monday, the Nationals departed for Italy – the home country of head coach Angiolino Frigoni – to train and play friendlies against local squads.
Ybañez expressed his excitement about gaining as much experience as possible during the trip.
“Feel ko sobrang privileged namin kasi nga makakapunta kami sa Europe, and we’ll be able to play against mga players doon sa Italy. And alam naman namin kung gaano kataas yung level ng volleyball doon,” said the two-time UAAP MVP.
“I’m looking forward na makalaro sila and maraming learnings na makuha from them,” he added.
As the host nation, the Philippines was automatically placed in Pool A, where they will face Asian Championship runner-up Iran, African Championship titlist Egypt, and 11-time African champion Tunisia.
Ybañez is a lethal outside spiker who transitioned to libero after joining the national team pool. He welcomes the challenge of competing against world-class teams and hopes to gain valuable experience from it.
“Sobrang happy ako na napunta [kami] sa pool na malalakas talaga. Actually, napunta ‘yung malalakas na teams sa amin. Kasi masaya ako dahil for sure, after the game, after the competition, we’ll get to absorb a lot of learnings from them.”
The 5-foot-7 dynamo has been a key addition to the Nationals, providing steady floor defense and energy, which helped the Philippines secure two bronze medals in the Southeast Asian V.League.
“Lagi ko namang sinasabi na sobrang saya ko and I never thought na mapupunta pa ako sa ganitong point sa World Championship. First batch pa talaga kami and masaya ako na binigyan ako ng chance ni God na makapaglaro kami,” he added.
