Team up inevitable? Alohi joining Foxies has only one hurdle
It has been seven months since Farm Fresh tried to get Alohi Robins-Hardy to suit up for the team in the PVL.
And the way the team and league hold their ground, things could get pretty complicated in the coming Rookie Draft.
Robins-Hardy warned prospective squads that she will not suit up for any team that picks her in the Rookie Draft unless it is Farm Fresh.
“If another team drafts me, I’ll return to the US and continue my career overseas,” she said in a statement released to the media on Monday. “I’m not just here to play anywhere. I came back for Farm Fresh. That’s where my heart is.”
The PVL warned her to rethink that stand.
“She cannot choose the team that she wants to play for … If another team decides to draft her and she says she refuses to play for that particular team, there will be sanctions,” PVL president Ricky Palou said during the Philippine Sportswriters Forum on Tuesday.
“We still haven’t discussed what sanctions we will impose … Once you go to the Draft and a team wants you, you have to play for that team or you don’t play at all,” he said.
Farm Fresh will pick third overall in the Draft, which is slated on June 8.
With top pick Capital1 set on tabbing National U star Bella Belen, only No. 2 pick Galeries Tower stands in the way of the Foxies and Robins-Hardy teaming up.
Robins-Hardy tried to make her return to the Philippine volleyball scene via direct hire with Farm Fresh, signing a deal that went against league rules.
“When I arrived last year, I made a promise to Tito Frank (Lao, the team owner) and to Farm Fresh—that’s the only team I will play for. I signed a five-year contract with them because I believe in what they’re building,” she said a few days before the second Rookie Draft slated on June 8.
Signing directly with the Foxies could not afford her a stint with the team, however, because league rules state that players who weren’t under contract at the time the league turned professional could not join any squad directly and would have to go through the Rookie Draft.
The Hawaii native thus spent the last All-Filipino Conference as assistant coach with Farm Fresh as well as with University of the Philippines in the UAAP.
The PVL instituted the Draft rule in a bid to halt big-money signing sprees by rich teams and ensure that the league would eventually find some sort of parity to make games more interesting.
Only free agents who were under contract when the league turned professional are allowed to sign directly with their squad of choice.
