Sherwin Meneses gets a friendly help as the national women's volleyball team marches to battle against Southeast Asian powerhouse Thailand in the ASEAN Grand Prix in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Meneses, who is coaching the national squad for only the second time in his career, met Tai Bundit at the sidelines of the Nationals' first training at the Korat Chatchai Hall in this town around 200 kilometers away from Bangkok.
Meneses knows that Bundit can give him some input on how to give the 15-time Southeast Asian Games champion a serious scare.
After all, Bundit served as a mentor of Thailand's national team in the 2006 Doha Asian Games before leading the Alyssa Valdez-powered Ateneo de Manila University to its first University Athletic Association of the Philippines title in 2014.
He won another title with the Blue Eagles in 2015 before powering Creamline to three Premier Volleyball League titles.
Meneses, a former Adamson University ace, served as Bundit's chief deputy with the Blue Eagles and the Cool Smashers, giving him an inside track on the Thai volleyball system.
The Filipinas and the Thais are still playing at press time.
Aside from Bundit, also helping Meneses come up with a strong finish in this prestigious four-nation tourney is Brazilian consultant Jorge Edson Souza de Brito.
Souza de Brito, who won a gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Asian Games, joined the trip through the instruction of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation to man the team's scouting department.
Meneses said he reached out to Souza de Brito as early as last month knowing that his inputs will be very valuable given his vast experience and exposure to elite volleyball players.
"Before the AVC, I already contacted him since he had the scouting reports and I was too busy with the local tournaments. He gave me links about the Southeast Asian Games and it will be a big help to our campaign," Meneses said, who steered the Nationals to a surprise sixth-place finish in the AVC Cup for Women.
"We talk to each other to see how we can help the team perform better."
Meneses said having elite coaches helping him would lead to a strong finish in this tourney, where they clinched the bronze medal in the 2019 edition in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
"This is the top four from the last SEA Games so we're preparing hard for the Grand Prix," Meneses said.
