Silence isn’t golden

Last March, the 12-team NCAA South proclaimed host school University of Perpetual Help System Laguna (UPHSL) as the general champion of the 16th season with 213 points. Second was La Salle Lipa with 192 points. The valuation was based on how the schools finished in 10 sports which were basketball, volleyball, chess, taekwondo, beach volleyball, football, badminton, table tennis, swimming and lawn tennis.

Under NCAA South rules, points are not awarded to the winner of a sport with less than seven participating schools. The rule of thumb for counting points in a sport is 50 percent of league membership plus one. Curiously, lawn tennis was participated in by only four schools, Emilio Aguinaldo College Cavite (EACC), San Beda College Alabang (SBCA), UPHSL and San Pablo Colleges (SPC, only in the men’s division). UPHSL, however, defied the rules by counting 30 points from lawn tennis to jack up its total to 213. Without the 30 points, UPHSL’s total would drop to 183 points. That would deliver the general championship to La Salle Lipa instead.

Including the lawn tennis points, here’s how the NCAA South schools finished the season: 1. UPHSL 213 points, 2. La Salle Lipa 192, 3. University of Batangas 141, 4. SBCA 125, 5. EACC 114, 6. Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas 111, 7. Letran Calamba 100, 8. Faith (First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities, Tanauan) 92, 9. Don Bosco Technical College 81, 10. Philippine Christian University of Dasmarinas, Cavite, 31, 11. SPC 24 and 12. St. Francis of Assisi College 25.

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La Salle Lipa president Br. Kenneth Martinez said the other day he sent a letter to the NCAA South Policy Board last March to point out the apparent irregularity. He followed up his request for clarification last May. Up to today, there has been no reply from the Board and the new season has started. For a while, the Board had assigned three school representatives to study Br. Kenneth’s inquiry. But nothing came of it. The NCAA South has been silent on the issue and it’s deafening. Why is this anomaly being covered up by silence?

In the junior division, La Salle Lipa took top honors with 202 points followed by SBCA with 154. UPHSL was third with 149.

La Salle Lipa sports and culture director Emily Babasa said it hasn’t been easy for the Green Chevrons to even contend for the general championship in the seniors division so if UPHSL is stripped of the crown, the victory would be so sweet for the school. “Half of our varsity coaches come from the faculty as an additional job,” she said. “We offer student athletes only scholarships while other schools offer dorm facilities, monthly allowance and amenities like playing shoes. We win consistently in the juniors but the situation is different in the seniors. The best athletes in the province are recruited and brought to Manila. But we somehow manage to be competitive.” Babasa used to be a part-time coach herself, specializing in volleyball.

Br. Kenneth, who is on his sixth year as Lipa president, said in his sports agenda, the immediate goal is to lay down an infrastructure for the long term. Under his leadership, La Salle Lipa has grown exponentially and is now the largest Catholic school in Batangas with a student population of 11,000 for college, elementary and high school. From five structures when the school was established in 1962, it now has 23, including a newly-built complex for business studies. A few days ago, Br. Kenneth led in the groundbreaking of a new sports stadium and a student center. The entire Lipa campus covers more than 18 hectares. At the moment, the sports facilities include a multi-purpose court called the Centrum, a track oval, football field and several basketball cement courts. The relocation to the new site for the sports complex will free up space in the main campus.

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The plan is to build two sports stadiums, a mirror image of each other for basketball, volleyball and other indoor sports, Batangas’ first Olympic-size swimming pool and two tennis courts. The entire project will cost about P100 Million and Br. Kenneth said the funding will be sourced from savings and income from enrollment and food concessionaires.

Br. Kenneth’s focus isn’t just on sports. The school has expanded its courses to include hotel and restaurant management (it has an in-house, fine-dining restaurant and a hotel with seven rooms and four dormitories of 25 to 30 beds each), technology and engineering and law. In its accountancy program, an average of 80 percent of students pass the CPA board exams. Obviously, Br. Kenneth, who finished high school at La Salle Greenhills and took up pharmacy at UP before joining the Christian Brothers, has a special place in his heart for sports. His high school classmate was PBA coach Joseph Uichico and one of his students was former La Salle player and TV commentator Dominic Uy. He’s an avid follower of sports and he keeps fit swimming laps in a nearby pool.

“I’m hoping to introduce a scientific process by which to evaluate our sports program,” said Br. Kenneth. “Perhaps, we’ll form an Advisory Board made up of La Salle graduates with a sports background. We want to firm up our sports infrastructure. Then, maybe, we can begin to look into upgrading the quality of our coaching and setting up goals for the future.”