MANILA, Philippines -- Dante Alinsunurin will continue to call the shots for the Philippine men's national volleyball team, after leading the squad to a historic silver medal in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

The Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) announced Thursday that Alinsunurin will still be the coach of the men's squad, with Ariel dela Cruz and Sherwin Meneses as his assistants.

Alinsunurin's primary goal will be to improve upon their silver medal finish in the 30th SEA Games at home, where a team bannered by Bryan Bagunas and Marck Espejo shocked perennial champions Thailand in the semifinals.

"Everybody is affected by the pandemic, but we are hoping to maintain our finish in the last SEA Games," said Alinsunurin, also the head coach of powerhouse National University in the UAAP.

"We have to work really, really hard if we want to win a gold medal," he added.

Meanwhile, Rhovyl Verayo and Paul John Doloiras were appointed as coaches of the men's and women's beach volleyball teams.

Both beach volleyball teams won bronze in the 2019 SEA Games, and the coaches are optimistic that they can improve upon that finish.

"We'll do everything to get a gold because our program is improving," said Verayo, who will be assisted on the bench by Jason Gabales and Reycarl Dimaculangan.

Doloiras, meanwhile, said they are looking beyond the bronze medal copped by the women's team, bannered by the powerhouse pair of Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons.

"We are all affected by the pandemic so we’re focusing on the conditioning of the players," he said. "We will do our best to improve slowly every game until the SEA Games."

Former University of Santo Tomas (UST) coach Odjie Mamon will coach the women's volleyball team.

The National Team Commission headed by Tonyboy Liao and National Coaches Commission under Jerry Yee made the recommendation to the PNVF board on the composition of the national coaching staff.

"Our appointed coaches will do whatever it takes to assemble the best ever team in the SEA Games with their vast coaching experience even during this situation," PNVF president Ramon "Tats" Suzara said. "So we're confident Philippine volleyball is in good hands."

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