Decorated mentor Babes Castillo will take over the reins of the Alas Pilipinas Girls, who will see action in the FIVB Volleyball Girls’ Under-17 World Championship in Chile later this year.

Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president Tony Boy Liao said Castillo’s appointment was approved by the sports association’s Board last Thursday.

Castillo’s first order of business is to form a competitive squad in Alas Girls’ first-ever appearance on the world stage.

“We’re not expecting too much but we’re going to send the best team possible,” Liao said of the youth squad that will compete in the prestigious tournament slated from 5 to 15 August.

Castillo, the architect of National University-Nazareth School’s successful high school volleyball program in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), replaces Edwin Leyva and will handle the team starting May.

“Most probably he’ll start handling the team by May. They will have three months training,” Liao said. 

The PNVF leadership has scheduled an inter-secondary under-18 tournament that will run from February to May to identify additional talent to strengthen the Alas Girls roster.

“We decided to infuse new players coming from the under-18 tournament,” Liao said.

Alas Girls wrote history after qualifying in the second staging of the prestigious age-group tournament following a fifth-place finish in the 2nd AVC Asian Women’s U16 Volleyball Championship last November in Amman, Jordan.

The team will undergo an intensive three-month training once the team roster is finalized.   Mark Escarlote