Gorayeb eyes finish far from bottom

Roger Gorayeb

Roger Gorayeb knows that his comeback in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) will be challenging, to say the least, as he tries to build a competitive Capital1 squad three weeks before the Power Spikers plunge into action.

“We do not need luck here—what I need to do is a miracle because the season will start in just a few weeks,” Gorayeb said as Capital1 announced its entry to the PVL on Thursday. “We will start to train next week, so we will just have two weeks to practice.

“This is huge for me, but everything is a challenge for me.”

With Capital1 racing against time to build a competitive team, Gorayeb opted to choose experienced players from a two-day tryout like Aiko Urdas, Jorelle Singh, Rovie Instrella, Heather Guino-o, and Jannine Navarro.

Gorayeb, who last called the shots for PLDT in the bubble season in 2021, has yet to name the other players for his final list from the 23 he so far has.

“We are really running out of time so I chose players with experience [playing professionally], those whom I’ve seen play before,” Gorayeb went on. “Because they will lean on my experience, I will lean also on their experience rather than just me feeling it out.

“In three weeks’ time, I need to mold them so my training program for them will not be for the long term. The preparation will be a short one, so our communication will be easy because they already know what I want them to do,” Gorayeb said.

Gorayeb has around 40 years of coaching experience from successful collegiate teams to the defunct Shakey’s V-League where he won a total of nine championships, something which he hopes to apply to leading the new team.

“For now, I don’t want to think about the next year, as much as possible, I would like to focus what’s in front of us. I don’t want us to land at the bottom,” he added.

“I cannot promise that we will be a great team right away. We’ll do it slowly,” he said when asked of expectations in their first conference.