The country’s top collegiate women’s athletes take center stage when the 38th Women’s National Collegiate Athletic Association season unwraps on Saturday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium with the league introducing a new sport – dodge ball – in its calendar of events.
The addition of dodge ball was announced by host Lyceum president Roberto Laurel in yesterday’s media launch at the Jose P. Laurel Hall located inside the campus.
The sport, which was already featured in a comedy movie with the same title, requires each team to field in six players with the score to be determined by hitting the opposing players with the ball.
This year’s theme is “Women: Conquering the Challenge of Sports,” which aims to strengthen women power not just in sports but in real life as well.
“The care for women athletes is not that high so in Lyceum we always tell our players to strive not only inside the court but also outside it so that they’ll have a career after basketball,” said Tanny Gonzales, Lyceum’s athletic director.
Others who graced the launch were league national president Vivian Manila, who bared plans of likewise including beach volleyball in the league’s future calendar of events.
“We’re looking into it,” said Manila. “But we’ll ask our Christian school members if they would accept it next year.”
Lyceum will be the team to watch, not as host but as the defending champion in basketball and volleyball competitions.
Other sports on tap are futsal, a shortened version of football or soccer, table tennis, badminton, swimming, lawn tennis, taekwondo, athletics and cheer dance competition.