By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Championship coach Rald Ricafort made a crucial decision to leave the Petro Gazz Angels and call the shots for the PLDT High-Speed Hitters in the upcoming 2023 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) season.
It was a surprising turn of events for Ricafort after leading Petro Gazz to the recent Reinforced Conference championship title and has always helped the team qualify for the playoffs.
Ricafort was tapped by Petro Gazz to become their chief mentor four years ago and changed the team’s approach and play style as the seasons passed.
“I’m very grateful to Petro Gazz sa four years we spent there dahil natulungan nila kami to be the coach that we are today,” Ricafort said.
The volleyball tactician will be replacing veteran coach George Pascua and will be facing a tough task in re-organizing the young High-Speed Hitters team.
Under Pascua, the High-Speed Hitters failed to enter any Conference championship series from the Open Conference to the Reinforced Conference.
Their best finish under coach Pascua was during the Invitational Conference where they were able to secure the fourth overall spot.
Aside from Ricafort’s arrival, PLDT also announced that they will be bringing in his assistant coach at Petro Gazz, Arnold Laniog.
“We at PLDT are excited to work with a young champion coach in Coach Rald. We know he can guide our players to the next level,” said PLDT/SMART Head of Sports Jude Turcuato.
