St. Ignatius bootfest at SHS-Ateneo

CEBU, Philippines - It's green and go for the 2012 St. Ignatius Goodwill Games on July 21 at Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu in Brgy. Canduman, Mandaue City.

Since the SHS-AdC field could not accommodate a lot of teams, the initial staging will be by invitation only.

The invited schools are noted to have strong teams in football namely Abellana National School, Don Bosco Technology Center and Canduman Elementary School. They will go up against the SHS-Ateneo squads.

 The categories to be contested are the 12, 14 and 17-under.

Each team may field in a minimum of 12 players. Entry fee is pegged at P150 per player.

Each category will have four teams playing in a single-round robin format. The top two seeds at the end of the elimination round will fight for the championship.

What is unique about this tournament is that each game is divided into three periods of 20 minutes each.

A team must field in different sets of 11 players in the first two periods. No substitution will be allowed in the first two periods unless a player is injured. The injured player, however, could no longer continue playing in that match.

Coaches will have the discretion on who to field in during the final period.

"The main objective is to provide a venue for players to gain competition-level exposure as a means to prepare them for the upcoming major football tournaments. We are also giving the coaches the opportunity to measure the fitness levels of their players as they prepare for these major tournaments in the season," said SHS-AdC athletic director Enrico David S. Navarro, who is also the vice president of the Cebu Football Association (CFA).

Among the tournaments that the Cebuano booters could look forward to are the Milo Little Olympics, CESAFI, Cebu City Olympics and Aboitiz Cup.  (FREEMAN)