THE lure of a professional career is making it difficult for National University (NU) star Alyja “Jaja” Santiago to decide once and for all if she will remain as a Lady Bulldog for one last season in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).
“It’s 70-30 [percent],” the 6-foot-5 Lady Bulldog told the BusinessMirror over the weekend, referring to her current thoughts on whether she will play her fifth and final season in the UAAP next year.
“My 70 percent is for my love for my alma mater and my unfinished business, which is to win a championship,” she explained.
The remaining 30 percent, Santiago said, hinges on the offers she has received to pursue a professional career—both domestic and international. She, however, refused to divulge what the international offers are.
But, for now, Santiago said her heart remains with NU.
“I’m still training with the team [NU],” the Lady Bulldogs team captain said.
“I want to end my UAAP career right and, of course, I want to pay respect and honor to my alma mater that I want to represent NU once again,” said Santiago, who will be with the national team to the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur in August.
Besides playing for NU, Santiago is also a stalwart for Foton in the Philippine Superliga. She helped the Tornadoes to the Grand Prix championship last season and for the ongoing All-Filipino tournament, her team is leading Pool C with a 5-1 won-lost record.
Club teams in both the Superliga and Philippine Volleyball League do not reveal the salaries their players get, but the BusinessMirror learned that monthly pay for in both leagues borders from above the country’s minimum pay per day to P30,000 a month for average players to as much as P70,000 to P90,000 a month for the star players.
De La Salle’s topnotch setter Kim Fajardo mulled over foregoing a fifth season but decided to stay and the result was a second straight championship for the Lady Spikers in Season 79.
National Team captains Johnvic de Guzman and Mika Reyes, meanwhile, vowed to fulfill their roles when both squads vie in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
“It’s a really big responsibility,” said the middle hitter Reyes, who was hailed Ms. Volleyball in the 2017 Philippine Sportswriters Association Annual Awards for 2016. “I trust my teammates so much. We’re not kids anymore. They are leaders of their respective mother clubs, too.”
“I already see the connection and chemistry of the players during training. We have a good relationship on and off the court,” the opposite spiker out of College of Saint Benilde said.
The Larong Volleyball sa Pilpinas Inc. (LVPI), meanwhile, will be sending the national teams to separate training camps abroad.
LVPI Acting President Peter Cayco said the men’s team will fly to Seoul on July 20, while the women’s squad will be going to Okayama City and Kobe in Japan earlier on July 17 for the camps.
After finishing fifth in the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore, the women’s team will undergo grueling training in Okayama City until July 26 before heading to Kobe, where it will face topnotch Japanese university and club teams.
With Reyes on the women’s team are fellow former and present collegiate stars Alyssa Valdez, Jaja Santiago, Jovelyn Gonzaga, Aby Maraño, Aiza Maizo-Pontillas, Denden Lazaro, Maika Ortiz and Rhea Dimaculangan.
Also on the team are Kim Fajardo, Gen Casugod and Frances Molina, and reserves Dawn Macandili and Kianna Dy, who replaced Rachel Anne Daquis who opted out.