‘We don’t want to disrupt the school leagues. We don’t want to see college teams losing their good players just after a year because they already want to jump into our league.’
PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of PVL FAITH Nisperos leads the exodus of collegiate stars to the professional ranks.
Aspiring rookies for the planned first-ever Premier Volleyball League draft next year would have to complete at least two playing years at the collegiate level to be eligible.
PVL president Ricky Palou told Daily Tribune that the league is also setting age restrictions and other parameters to ensure that only high-caliber players with competitive experience will be available for the expanded field of the country's first and only women's professional volleyball league.
"We're putting an age limit of about 21 years old and at least two (playing) years in college for players to be eligible to enter the draft, those are the rules that we want to set," Palou said.
The league is looking at conducting the draft by June or July following the coming season's first conference which will begin in February.
This development came following some of the member clubs' recruitment spree from the collegiate ranks where some players decided to forego their remaining playing eligibility while others immediately jumped into the pros after just one season in their respective schools.
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Palou said that the league doesn't want to start a diaspora of players with less than two years of college competition experience or even straight from high school into the PVL.
Last season saw a bevy of big-name University Athletic Association of the Philippines stars opt to go straight into the pros.
Akari landed Ateneo de Manila University's Faith Nisperos and De La Salle University pair of Fifi Sharma and Justine Jazareno, who all had remaining playing years in their respective teams. Farm Fresh got the Adamson University core of rookie Trisha Tubu, Kate Santiago and Louie Romero while prized winger Eya Laure left University of Santo Tomas to play for Chery Tiggo.
"We don't want to disrupt the school leagues. We don't want to see college teams losing their good players just after a year because they already want to jump into our league," he said.
"We also see that these players should improve and develop their skills at the collegiate level first to be more competitive and mature heading into the pro ranks."
The rookie draft would also ensure parity and competitiveness in the coming season as well as give clubs a fair chance of landing quality players.
Palou said that the draft order will have the team with the lowest rank from the combined recently-concluded 2nd All-Filipino Conference and the 2024 season-opening tournament will draw first.
"We want the teams to be more balanced. The moneyed clubs will always be at an advantage if we don't hold a draft. We want to give all teams equal opportunities to get quality players through drafting and not just about who the highest bidder is," he said.
"We'll have drafting and salary caps so that all teams will really get the chance to strengthen their team."
A no-trade and buy-out for draft picks for at least two years will also be implemented.
"Our stand here is that if you want to strengthen your team, keep your draft pick," Palou said.
