Gearing up for the sports schoolyear

The NCAA started a month ago and the UAAP kicked off its season last weekend. And all of the country’s eyes were focused on the most prestigious leagues in the land. It was as if all this was scripted. Let the big boys start and let the rest of the world follow suit. Unfortunately, we in Cebu are part of the rest. But we’ll take it and moe on, won’t we?

The CESAFI kicks off next weekend, obiously not competing with the big leagues and cooking up its own pakulo to draw the attention of the basketball-mad Cebu sports family. That will also kick off Cebu’s own set of sports competitions that will fill up almost eery weekend of the first semester of the schoolyear. CESAFI’s basketball season will also mark the launch of the other competitions that will be held from August to early October. Aside from basketball, games will be played in football, olleyball, swimming, athletics, table tennis, badminton, chess, lawn tennis, dancesport, taekwondo, sepak takraw, and beach olleyball. Most eents will inole both the collegiate and high school diisions.

Aside from the CESAFI, the high school and grade schools are looking forward to another edition of the Milo Little Olympics 2012 isayas Regional Finals. This takes place on the weekends of August 24-26 and September 1-2. This is the first of the two biggest multi-sport eents for the region in the mold of the Olympics. The eent brings out an Olympic-style approach with teams taking part in the standard Olympic eents. The winners here represent Team isayas (“Bisdaks”) in the national finals of the Milo Little Olympics which will be held in October.

This will be followed by the arious City Olympics managed by the Department of Education (DEPED) where each local DEPED unit runs its own “Olympics.” Cebu’s City Olympics is the most recognized for the obious reason that majority of the Central isayas’ top athletes come from Cebu City. The other DEPED units like Mandaue and the other cities also host their own “Olympics” but these are obiously not as popular as that of Cebu City. Other units that produce top athletes include Cebu Proince, Dumaguete City, Bohol Proince and Tagbilaran City. These are the “teams” that face off against each other in the annual CIRAA that takes place eery Noember. The winners and other top athletes here qualify for the Palarong Pambansa which is held eery summer.

Through the other part of the schoolyear, specific eents hae their own calendars that also lead to national-leel competitions. In basketball, the Milo-sponsored BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Tournament brings together the best teams of the SBP (Under 12) and Passerelle (Under 15) age groups. Cebu/isayas is the back-to-back defending national champion in the Passerelle diision. The NBTC D-League for the Under 17 age group is held from December 2012 to March 2013 with the local winners also going to a national finals. The Cebu Youth Basketball League (CYBL) takes oer in January, featuring three age groups: Under 16, Under 13 and Under 10.

Football also has a full-house calendar outside of the CESAFI, Milo Olympics and CIRAA. The San Roque Cup will be played August 24-26. The Aboitiz Football Cup is Cebu’s most prestigious tournament for all age groups from Under 6 all the way to the “seniors” age groups. This will be played from September to December. The start of the new year then brings in a series of one-day football festials starting with the Sinulog Cup and St. John Bosco Football Festials in January. The Thirsty Cup, the biggest festial in town, takes oer in February while the CIS Friendship Cup is played in March. Somewhere in between will rise other football festials which seem to be the more popular type of tournament these days.

olleyball will hae the GU Cup as swimming, taekwondo, tennis, archery and other eents will also hae its own calendar of eents that will keep athletes busy all school-year. This marks a heay bill of competitions that should keep the sports fans busy and that will hopefully produce the world beaters from among our midst.

So block off those weekends. Cancel those plans to go out of town. If you’re a sports parent, fan or follower, you won’t hae any problems with a lack of actiities to watch, follow and enjoy.

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Time-out: Join the St. Ignatius Run 2012 at Insular Square: 16K Open, 6K Open and 3K for the SHS-Ateneo community. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].