Big boost for CESAFI

The Cebu Coliseum will be packed this afternoon as the Cebu Eastern College Dragons and the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles clash in game 2 of the secondary finals of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. basketball tournament.

The high school championship match-up features two teams that have reached this far in the tournament for the first time.

The huge win of the Dragons in game 1 has given them the psychological edge, but more than that, the CESAFIU observers, who I have talked to, tag them as the odds on favorites to win the title.

The collegiate battle between the University of Cebu and the University of the Visayas is of course also very exciting, but a lot of interest has been generated by the high school battle, which is already historical at this stage.

While we are in the subject of the CESAFI, I received a copy of a letter that Commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy sent to the board of the organization asking that grievances must first be addressed to the board before they are referred to the media.

Tiukinhoy’s letter is in relation to the stories that came out last weekend when Ryan Aznar, athletic director of Southwestern University (SWU), complained about the change in schedule.

In fact, this deadline beater received a text message from Tiukinhoy where he expressed his disappointment on the matter.

The CESAFI, although already in its tenth season, is not anymore a young league trying to cope with growing pains. I’m sure this most recent issue was something that was easily addressed.

Maybe such matters would not anymore reach the media if they have been solved immediately. What I hate most is when people tend to make conclusions from what they perceive.

With that matter already behind us, for now maybe, the focus should be on the championship series, which has encouraged many who haven’t watched the league before, to find time to be there.

This is great for CESAFI and I hope that the league will ride on this success to make the next season even more exciting.

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If you are reading this before 6 a.m., you might want to head to the Asiatown IT Park where there is a free session of Zumba fitness conducted by Emma Satchell, which is a joint project of the Cebu City Sports Commission and barangay Apas.

I met Satchell a few weeks ago when she joined us during the meeting of the CCSC and introduced Zumba, which combines hip-hop dancing an aerobic exercise.

She is a native of Bukidnon, who made it to Singapore and the US where she trained to become a Zumba fitness instructor. Now that she’s back in the country, her dream is to get her fellow Filipinos interested in Zumba.

If you can’t make it today, I understand that there would be another session next weekend. Just keep posted for more information.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings go to Joy Agruda-Mercado, Mike Logico and Aurea Medroso-Puro, who are celebrating today.

Advance birthday greetings to those celebrating tomorrow like my cousin Clifford Gaite, Paolo Borromeo, Khareen Anderson, Olivia ‘Bang-Bang’ Uy-Dizon, and The Freeman’s Maribeth Berongan.