MANILA, Philippines — Italian Angiolino Frigoni is the new coach of the Alas Pilipinas men's volleyball team.

Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president Ramon 'Tats' Suzara announced the development in a media scrum with reporters during the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) on Saturday.

"We have a new Italian coach. He's a two-time Olympic coach Frigoni. He's here to share with us his expertise and to bring our team and elevate their skills next year," said Suzara.

The 70-year-old Frigoni previously steered the Italy and Netherlands' women's national teams which both went to the Olympics.

Frigoni, who previously handled the Italy men's U21 team in 2021, replaces Sergio Veloso who will now be in charge of the Philippine men and women's grassroots program.

Veloso, who's also the head coach of the Ateneo women's volleyball team, will go to the Palarong Pambansa in Cebu this July in search of talents for the junior national team.

"Sergio will now be the director for the junior development so we're now setting up a junior development program. Sergio will be in charge of the under 18, under 20, as you know we're participating the under 18 boys in Bahrain and under 20 women in the AIMAG in Bangkok in November so he's basically in charge of feeding the senior national team with very young players," said Suzara.

"He's focused more on the upcoming university players to play in the national team. He needs to get a pool of coaches to help him. He will start recruiting players in the province and he'll go to Cebu in the Palarong Pambansa and other national tournaments."