It’s back to basics for Petro Gazz under new head coach Timmy Sto. Tomas.
Sto. Tomas was appointed as the Angels chief tactician after former coach Oliver Almadro was tapped as the team’s Head of Volleyball Operations in late August this year.
“Magaan tapos simple. Yun lang po,” said Petro Gazz ace Grethcel Soltones on their new mentor.
“Si Coach Timmy mas pinapadali niya yung role namin bawat isa at ayun nga parati niyang instruction, simple volleyball lang pero hindi namin makuha, simpleng simple pero ewan ko ba,” admitted the open hitter.
The Angels needed to showcase their composure in crunch time of the second and third sets in their 2023 Premier Volleyball League 2nd All-Filipino Conference debut against newcomer Galeries, 25-11, 26-24, 25-22, on Tuesday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Sto. Tomas is grateful that he did not need to adjust much, having been an assistant of Almadro before in Petro Gazz.
He also credited their veteran core of Aiza Maizo-Pontillas, Djanel Cheng, Chie Saet, and Soltones that led to their straight sets win despite the latter two frames going down to the wire.
“Syempre yung pressure is always there so swerte ako kasi I’m back with this kind of players sila Nang, sila Grethcel, sila Mommy Chie, sila Ate Cheng so the whole bunch is very supportive of one another and yung culture namin sa team sobrang gaan, everyone helps each other,” said Sto. Tomas, the long-time deputy of Almadro.
“They are very open to criticism, to change kaya medyo maganda yung pagtransition din ng pagku-coach ko sa kanila.”
Aside from the Angels, the youthful coach also guides the Ateneo de Manila University men’s team in the UAAP.
He admitted that there’s a vast difference in the handling of his two squads.
“Syempre hindi naman mawawala yung kaba. Magiging hipokrito naman ako kung sabihin kong hindi ako napi-pressure, hindi ako kinakabahan kasi syempre iba pa rin itong pro league compared to what I’ve been handling sa collegiate,” said Sto. Tomas.
“Especially syempre women’s pa ito so all eyes on me, all eyes on the team. Then again, trabaho pa rin as long as alam naman namin na tama yung ginagawa namin and we’re on the right track I think we’ll be very confident na maganda yung kalalabasan ng campaign namin for this conference.”
The Angels were coming off a ninth-place finish in the previous Invitational Conference.
