In pursuit to become a varsity player, the sixteen-year-old palarong pambansa basketball player Angela ‘Lala’ Arma sought to aspire to her dream to play in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines or also known as ‘UAAP’ for the National University Nazareth School after when tryouts held in Cebu made her be one of the athletes to be scouted by the catholic priest school.
Ever since the training period for the Cebu-Tacloban bubble appeared to happen last July, the Senior High School Student made her way to finishing all the school requirements by the end of the school year before she buckled up for month-long training in Tacloban.
"Bisan nagdudungan it mga iparasa kinakaya man la, kaulangan talaga mahuman ngatanan antis makakadto ha Tac [Tacloban City] '', she answered.
However, the bubble consisted of college student-athletes from universities in neighboring provinces— her predicament seems to be overwhelming with the fact that she is the only one that came from a public high school that is under Coach Catuday’s lineup.
"Pagdatung dit han training, puro mga college na it na tune up, hi ako la it naiba since ako la talaga it tikang ha compre", she added.
After a fortnight of training, the bubble traveled to Cebu on July 10th, for the team to further search for the opportunities of getting scouted by known universities, especially those that are from the Metro.
On July 19th, Lala was announced to be scouted for the NU Nazareth School which the known names of the current UAAP Volleyball Superstars like Bella Belen, Alyssa Solomon, Jen Nierva, Camina Lamina, Ivy Lacsina, Thea Gagate, and Faith Nisperos graduated high school from.
A long way to go, but her initial head start towards playing in the UAAP Juniors will be set in January 2023. Along with her teammates, they have been training since the start of August, they flew to Manila on the second day of the month to officially start their training as NU Bullpups.
The team consists of standout players of Palarong Pambansa coming from NCR and from other regions according to her. Although, the school management decided to not name their recruits at the moment.
"Mayda ko teammates nga tikang ha NCR [National Capital Region] nga nakalaban nam dati, mayda daman mga taga iba nga region nga nakilala ko han Palaro", she vocalized.
Now, she is currently attending the said school as a Grade 12 Senior High School Student, her determination to become her dream to be a university varsity player was made possible by her burning passion for the sport and through the help of the month-long bubble.
"Pasalamat ko la han mga binulig haam han training, thank you han am coach nga binuligan kami makasulod han tryout", she uttered with gratitude.
Since she is focused to play for her first UAAP Competition in January, her collegiate plans as a student-athlete are yet for her to decide in the future.
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