IF Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president Ramon “Tats” Suzara will be asked about Brazilian coach Jorge Edson Souza de Brito’s future, he’s going nowhere but in Alas Pilipinas.
“We’ll be appealing that he remains head coach of our women’s national team program,” said Suzara on Monday, a day after the Alas Pilipinas methodically beat Chinese-Taipei, 25-13, 25-21, 25-18, to advance to the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Challenge Cup for Women semifinals unscathed in four matches in Pool A play.
“Coach Jorge coached the country to a first-ever semifinals stint in any AVC or Asian level competition, that’s historic for Philippine volleyball,” Suzara said. “And because of that, there’s no reason that we’ll let him go.”
By letting go means De Brito—who arrived in the country in July 2021 under the FIVB’s national team development program that Suzara significantly facilitated—would be heading for Chinese-Taipei for another tour of duty.
De Brito, who helped Brazil to the men’s gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, is bound to be replaced by another FIVB-appointed coach from Italy.
The 57-year-old Brazilian has earlier stated in interviews that if he has his way, he’d love to stay in the Philippines—his family, in fact, have joined him in the country and according to him, they’ve gotten to love the Philippines.
Immediately after Alas Pilipinas beat Iran to secure a semifinals seat, the Philippines rose from No. 62 to No. 57 in the FIVB women’s world ranking and breached the top 10 in Asia at No. 9.
“We’ve always trusted Coach Jorge and Alas Pilipinas’s historic accomplishment in this AVC Challenge Cup is testament to his world-class skills as coach,” Suzara said.