This is far from the Creamline Cool Smashers game. What you see is not us, says Jema Galanza. The Cool Smashers land on the fourth and last spot to qualify in the next round after the elims of the Premier Volleyball League in its new edition in 2024. It is a cliffhanger semifinal slot, completing the semis cast only to taste the bitterness of another defeat. At the crucial stage of the tournament, Galanza is already doing a Darna.
She understands that pressure points are needed to stop the Pink bleeding. The one wearing Michael Jordan’s jersey number goes out one night to bleed for 23 points and exactly the same production for another. She can still glance at a tiny hole, where Creamline can cross into the best-of-three championship series. Never mind reclaiming the title. Being in the finals is enough.
Still no reliable, steady hands in sight that would set the perfect ball for the spikers to hit, because long-time Best Setter Jia Morado-De Guzman has grabbed a once-in-a-lifetime offer abroad. MVPs Alyssa Valdez and Tots Carlos can hardly don their usual high gears as they are heavily scouted out by their adversaries. Even though Galanza was also MVP back in 2019, they have to brave the toughest challenge of the present, knowing that their competitors come well prepared. They come with high stakes and an equally high-level competition.
Galanza even notes that any Cool Smasher plays in fear because everyone wants to bring them down. Everyone looks up to them and, of course, “binabato ang mabunga.”
This favorite daughter of Laguna and product of San Pedro Relocation Center National High School and Adamson University seriously takes advantage of every opportunity given to her to ably protect Creamline from a quick meltdown. She fully trusts herself that she still can unleash something more. She totally trusts her teammates that they still can change things for the better and can learn from the battles they both won and lost (“salo-salo manalo, matalo”). Above all, she gives due weight to the words of Coach Sherwin Meneses, who never loses confidence in them: “I have a better view that you still can do it.” Can the defending champs even make razor-sharp progress and avoid one more loss, while their foes have already positioned better on the ramp?
They never lose again. The Choco Mucho Flying Titans simply fail to deliver the goods and extend the titular showdown into Game 3. It is because Galanza’s hopes and dreams never fail. There you go. Creamline bags its 4-peat and eight title overall in the pro league.
According to Galanza, there are also those who hope that she will model consistency, including her younger sister Mafe, who has become a champion twice after being added to the not-so-deep-anymore Creamline roster since the last conference.
In life, not just in Galanza sisters’ favorite sport, consistency matters. It is difficult to translate this into one word in the Filipino language. “Kabuuan?” Nope. “Hindi pabago-bago?” Not really.
But Jema Galanza tries her best to be the most consistent among her teammates in terms of playing offensively and defensively. Her attack mode is massive, and her thousand moves cannot be easily predicted by foes stationed near or far from the net. She tallies more receives and digs than previous conferences. She still makes crucial blocks. She is now an eight-time champion and five-time Best Spiker awardee, aside from getting the coveted PVL Finals MVP plum. And most importantly, she is the healthiest among Coach Sherwin’s starting unit.
If Valdez is Creamline’s heart and soul, Galanza is the staying power of their defense, the heavy-duty generator of their offense and, well, magical moments for both the team and the legion of fans. It is because, to paraphrase Jordan, she relaxes and never thinks about what is at stake. Jema Galanza just thinks about the volleyball game.
This is special for those who follow the career of the former Queen Falcon. Why? Now that volleyball is the Next Big Thing – assuming it is not the most popular sport in the Philippines yet – the sport loves Galanza back.
‘Yun mindset ng pagiging champion kasi ang hirap maging consistent, ang hirap maging champion every conference pero makikita niyo sa amin, bawat isa gusto namin nananalo, gusto namin makuha ang season na ito,” Galanza said after they won Game 1. Indeed, her consistency is the key.
DC Alviar
Professor DC Alviar serves as a member of the steering committee of the Philippine International Studies Organization (PHISO). He was part of National University’s community extension project that imparted the five disciplines of a learning organization (Senge, 1990) to communities in a local government unit. He writes and edits local reports for Mega Scene. He graduated with a master’s degree in development communication from the University of the Philippines Open University in Los Baños. He recently defended a dissertation proposal for his doctorate degree in communication at the same graduate school under a Philippine government scholarship grant. He was editor-in-chief of his high school paper Ang Ugat and the Adamson News.
