Veteran coach Sammy Acaylar insists that his feet remain firmly planted on the ground despite his string of achievements in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Fresh from steering University of Perpetual Help System Dalta to its fourth straight men’s volleyball crown after sweeping Emilio Aguinaldo College, Acaylar didn’t feel comfortable talking about his exploits.

“I didn’t think about it. What I always think about is the improvement of my players. And me, as a coach, I always watch YouTube for volleyball programs,” said Acaylar, who now has 14 championships under his belt since he held the coaching position in 1985.

“So, me, I’m not saying that I am good. I still watch training programs on YouTube. That’s where I get the drills for my team.”

With team improvement on his mind, Acaylar now faces a gaping hole in his roster heading into the next season, as five players ended their collegiate stint after the championship, including star skipper and back-to-back Most Valuable Player Louie Ramirez.

“As I said, I can’t just get someone like Louie easily. He is Louie Ramirez, so what I did is I’m finding players who have the same height as him, who jump high like him. Because that was my key when I acquired him,” Acaylar said.

“And he’s a very humble person. He’s not the kind of person who, just because he’s always given time to play, he always scores, he’ll become arrogant, then he won’t train. He’s not like that. The more he’s given playing time, the more he trains to prepare his body.”

‘My motivation for Jeff is like this, he will inherit Louie’s footsteps.’

But Ramirez’s heir apparent could be seated on the same bench.

Jeff Marapoc was hailed the Finals Most Valuable Player after dishing out 18 points from 15 attacks and three aces.

“My motivation for Jeff is like this, he will inherit Louie’s footsteps. Including his financials, because Louie’s financials are high. (I told him) I’ll give it to you. So, it’s a big responsibility. And I also told him that he will become one of my team captains,” Acaylar said.

“He accepted it, and now look, I gave him that talk yesterday, so he was energetic coming into this game. I told him, don’t think about your height because he has the jumping ability. So that’s when the kid got motivated.”

Aside from Marapoc, Acaylar acknowledged that the team will have to go through the long and rigorous process of developing players to maintain their winning ways.

“I don’t want to be complacent that I already acquired some players. Well, I actually acquired some players but we’re back to basics, back to training,” Acaylar said.

“Because, of course, we’ll spend a long time training them, there’s psychological, emotional, mental toughness, and physical aspects.”