MANILA, Philippines – Following the stunning departure of head coach Oliver Almadro, Choco Mucho’s goal remains the same.

After the Flying Titans defeated United Auctioneers Inc-Army in straight sets on Tuesday in the 2022 Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, interim head coach Edjet Mabbayad made it quite apparent that his team is dead-set on reaching the semifinals.

When questioned about his future with the team, Mabbayad responded, “Wala pa naman tayo doon sa usapan ang yun. [we are still not yet there]” “As of right now, I’m just concentrating on the remaining games.”

In order to focus on the women’s volleyball team at Ateneo de Manila University, Almadro, who has guided the Rebisco-supported team since they joined the league in 2019, resigned as head coach last Saturday.

During his tenure with Choco Mucho, the UAAP champion coach compiled a 24 to 27 win-loss record and guided the team to a few fourth-place finishes.

“Of course, syempre mabigat talaga [It is heavy], mararamdaman talaga namin yun and hindi naman namin kailangan alisin sa kanila yun [we will feel that and we should not disregard it]. Hinayaan lang namin pero sabi namin sa kanila paggising bukas [for now we just let it slide but, tomorrow we will let them know], ibang usapan na yun tapos na yung kahapon, [it’s a different topic, yesterday is done]” said Mabbayad, whose last coaching gig was with National University.

“Lahat naman in general na lang [everything is general], alam niyo na naman yung pakiramdam na para kang binagsakan ng ano [you know the feeling when something is heavy on you], ‘di ka makagalaw and tahimik lang talaga yung paligid mo and makikita mo sa movement parang mabagal, yun yung feeling, [you cannot move and your surrounding is just quite, the movements seems so slow, that’s the feeling] ” he added.

In order to defeat the Lady Troopers and move to 3 to 3 in the standings, Choco Mucho overcame a sluggish first set performance.

“Nung una naniniwala kami na kaya nila yung gawin [at first we believed that they ca do it], kaya nilang kumapit sa mga ganung sitwasyon so siguro pinakita or niremind lang namin sila na kailangan pagkatiwalaan nila yung mga sarili nila, [that they can do it in those kind of situation so, we just show them or reminded them that all they can do is to trust each other]” said Mabbayad

“Alam dapat nila sa sarili nila na kaya nilang gawin yun [they should know that they can do it themselves], kumbaga kailangan nilang kailangan nilang maniwala sa sarili nila para magawa nila [it’s like they really need to trust themselves to do it], nakita naman natin yung resulta nagawa naman nila, [we saw what they have done]” he continued.

When they play Creamline on November 17, Thursday at 5:30 PM, Mabbayad hopes the team can pick up where they left off.

“Masaya naman and hopefully magtuloy tuloy yung panalo para mas masaya, [Happy and hopefully we can continuously win so that we can be happier]” said Mabbayad.