The family that competes together wins together.
That has been the case for the Van Sickle Family, as Brooke led the Petro Gazz Angels back to the PVL Reinforced Conference finals with her father, Gary, as the head coach and mom Lisa as the deputy. The two-time PVL MVP Van Sickle delivered the goods for the Angels as they survived the No.8 Akari in a five-set thriller, 25-19, 25-17, 15-25, 22-25, 15-13, in a no-tomorrow semifinal on Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
‘They’re still my coaches at the end of the day. I’m happy and proud of everyone. It took some time, but we got here,’ said Van Sickle, who also had 18 excellent receptions and 13 digs.
For Gary, it was a full-circle moment to coach Brooke again and steer Petro Gazz to its second finals this year and third Reinforced championship appearance in the last four editions.
‘It’s been awesome coaching her again. We’ve coached her since she was a little girl,’ Gary said. ‘I think every once in a while, she probably gets upset with me because I’m pushing her really hard in the match. I’ll talk to her outside the timeout. She’s just been playing well, so it makes it easy.’ But more than coaching her daughter, the new Petro Gazz coach marveled at the talent-rich Angels, also led by their returning import Lindsey Vander Weide and Myla Pablo.
‘It’s easy to coach this group. They’re closely knit. They support one another. So even when it was going rough, they just kind of gelled with each other. It makes it easy because most of the girls, except for the import they played, they won a championship together,’ said Gary.
‘So when times got tough, they kind of held their composure. And for me, it’s just a matter of trying to control the timeouts and the pace of the game, making some subs. But overall, it’s the players. They’re making plays, and it makes my job easier.’
Brooke was grateful for how they overcame a slow start in the elimination round and won four straight important games-including a quarterfinal win over Creamline-to surpass the Final 8 exit last year, when they were without Lindsey Vander Weide.
‘It’s awesome to be in this position. I think our team has been doing a fantastic job of, like how Lindsey just said, anyone can come off the bench at any time and produce,’ she said. ‘You got a good bench, you’re going to have a good, like a jelling team because you’re being pushed at practice all the time. So I would just say it’s definitely surreal being able to be in the finals again. And I just try to stay grounded, just conference by conference.’
As she eyes her second PVL championship with the Angels, Brooke stays locked in as they battle the winner of the ZUS Coffee-PLDT semifinal game in a winner-take-all on Sunday.
‘All-Filipino was in the past. Now we’re on the Reinforced. This is where my focus is. I don’t care how the other conferences work. It’s just being the present, being the moment. So I think that’s how we’re rocking it,’ she said. Gary vows to bring out the best in the Angels for the franchise’s fourth overall PVL title.
‘Whoever we end up playing, we’re going to have to bring our A game if we want to win this conference. So yeah, we’re probably going to watch film on both. Whoever wins this, we’ll watch film and try to make a few adjustments and, just get ready for another battle,’ he said.