Team-building sessions for sports teams are very common now. What is not common is to do it in the mysterious and mystical Mt. Banahaw in Dolores, Quezon.
But that is exactly what the Foton women’s volleyball team underwent a week before the opening of the PSL All-Filipino Conference as the players, together with the coaching staff, stayed overnight in Barangay Sta. Lucia, with this writer, a sports team-building facilitator, who in the past has brought women’s teams from Lyceum and University of the East to Banahaw for similar sessions.
The session was a combined two-day indoor and outdoor adventure team bonding activities—an experiential type of team building.
And what an experience it turned out to be for the players and the coaching staff, led by head coach Aaron Velez, his two assistants Brian Esquibel and Jerome Guhit, together with team manager Diane Santiago and her assistant Christine Aquino and the 17 players, headed by the team’s cornerstone player Jaja Santiago and sister Dindin Manabat and veterans Maika Ortiz and Ivy Perez.
The rest of the players were Shaya Adorador, Carmina Aganon, Laizah Ann Bandiong, Jen Reyes, Gyzelle Sy, Ennajie Laure and her rookie sister Ejiya, Arriane Layug, Cristine Joy Rosario, Marian Alisa Buitre and Justine Dorog, new recruits from the University of the Philippines, and Lumi Yongco.
The first outdoor event was the river trail trek from San Bernardo all the way to the twin falls of Sta. Lucia, where the team was divided into two groups composed of buddy pairs. Along the way, the players dipped under mini waterfalls and even picked up plastic trash on the route as part of the activity.
From Sta. Lucia, the group went up a 270-step stairway, before proceeding to the Kweba ni San Jacob, a physical and psychological challenge for most of the players as they entered a small tight cave with a cold underground river inside that they had to dip themselves into.
On the second day, they went by jeepney to Kinabuhayan.
Adding to the adventure on the second day was the fact that almost all the players opted to ride on top of the two jeepneys rented, affording them a 360-degree view while dodging those low lying tree branches along the zigzag road.
What awaited them at Kinabuhayan was another cave experience, easier one this time. Then, they had a cross-to-the-waterfalls challenge at the end of the trail.
Except for Eya Laure, everyone opted to do it with non-swimmers hanging on to a rope strung out across the deep natural pool into the waterfalls.
All along the outdoor events, the players found out they had to support their buddies and teams throughout, working as a team under the assigned team leaders. What they did not know was how they performed was going to be rated and processed by themselves, teaching them to accept constructive criticisms.
At the end of the sessions, the players, aside from having fun and enjoying themselves on the local home-cooked meals, realized the truth behind the Understand-Accept-Adjust Principle shared to them.
As team manager Santiago put it, their Banahaw team-building was the best one they had experienced.
The question now is the kind of effect the sessions had on the players.
The answer? Watch them play in the ongoing PSL conference.
