FOR EMILIO “Kung Fu” Reyes Jr., coaching multiple volleyball teams is not a job but a hobby.
He actually has a day job, working as a logistician and physical fitness trainer at the Philippine Army headquarters in Taguig.
But the 36-year-old Reyes has his hands full in volleyball.
He coaches UST’s collegiate and high school teams, and semi-professional team RC Cola-Army Lady Troopers in the Philippine SuperLiga (PSL).
“If I treated this like a job, I would have quit right now,” he told the Varsitarian. “It is hard but at the end of the day, you go home with a smile on your face and I think, that is the most important.”
Reyes is instrumental in the development of former Junior Tigresses Alyssa Valdez, sisters Dindin and Jaja Santiago, Kim Fajardo and several others when he took his first coaching job as assistant to former UST girls’ volleyball coach Francis Vicente in 2004.
In 2013, he took over as head coach and guided the Junior Tigresses to the title.
“If not for the girls, I already want to stop,” he said. “We might produce more talented players who are better than the players we have developed before. We are just waiting for that player to come but we do not know when will that happen, that’s why I’m still here coaching.”
Last year, Reyes was named chief tactician of the Golden Tigresses. This year, he also began coaching the Lady Troopers for the PSL’s fourth season.
He said there was no conflict between the training sessions of his teams. But he said overlapping game schedules could be a problem.
And he still finds time to play.
Reyes is the team captain and settle of the Philippine Army Troopers in the Spiker’s Turf league.
“It warms my heart that the lessons I taught my players, they use it outside the court and they enjoy playing the game,” he said. Philip Martin L. Matel and Randell Angelo B. Ritumalta
