Fighting chance for struggling UP Maroons

The morning starts at 4 for Jayson Jimenez, 20, a middle distance runner and member of the University of the Philippines (UP) track and field team.

From his Ipil dorm at UP Diliman, he commutes to the Philippine Sports Complex (formerly Ultra) in Pasig for the team’s thrice-weekly training under coach Rio dela Cruz, only to rush back to UP for his next class. The team has to train at the sports complex where the track oval is better and ideal for training athletes.

Taking public rides, including cabs, to manage the hectic daily commute between Quezon City and Pasig can cost up to P170, Jimenez said, a huge cut from the P300 weekly allowance he gets from his parents in Nueva Ecija as a Physical Education student.

Jimenez’s plight is typical of other UP athletes, most of whom are scholars who subsist on minimal subsidies from the university and even leaner allowances from home.  Some of them, like Jimenez, take on odd jobs to supplement school expenses that, in turn, uses precious time that could otherwise have been spent practicing for the next varsity event, or studying.

Cellar dwellers

No wonder the UP Fighting Maroons have been considered cellar dwellers among competing teams in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) events, something that stung an alumnus enough for him to do something about it.

“I’m tired of cheering for our neighbor (school),” said then National Food Authority administrator Renan Dalisay whose nowheretogobutUP foundation is raising funds for UP athletes to give them a fighting chance in the annual varsity competitions.

With the launch of the nowheretogobutUP foundation and its official website last week, UP alumni, fans and supporters can donate online to support the university’s 32 varsity teams.

The initiative, said Dalisay, “is not just about raising funds for the UP athletes but also building the UP community brick by brick.”  His hope, he added, is to see UP students become the embodiment of valor, not glamor.

“The slogan, nowheretogobutUP, symbolizes the campaign for a winless basketball team to help them win,” the foundation chair said. “It is about us, the UP community. What brought us here is our UP education. The essence of the institution is to help us give back.”

Challenges

Indeed, the plight of UP athletes like Jimenez underscores the challenges that their counterparts in more financially endowed universities never had to face.

Under the Varsity Athletic Admission System (Vaas) of UP Diliman, Jimenez pays only P78 as tuition, and gets P50 worth of lunch and dinner at the UP Vinzon’s Hall from Monday to Friday. The rest of the  expenses are on the student athlete’s account, including the P17.50 training rental fee per athlete for the use of the track at Ultra, given at a 50-percent discount.

The food allowance is inadequate, he said, as some dishes are priced beyond the P50 meal limit. There’s also no food allowance on holidays and weekends. “I experienced not eating when I was still a freshman,” he said, adding that going hungry forced him to look for several part-time jobs.

“I depend on my being an athlete to study and survive. My family also depends on me. Their dream is for me to finish (school) in UP,” Jimenez said. “We’re lucky Coach Rio is our coach. He helps us out with our dormitory fees sometimes,” he added.

Coach Rio, as he is now called in running circles, himself went through the same hardship when he was on athletic scholarship at UP. He got by with very little support, becoming coach of the starving track and field team after graduation. He started organizing running events in UP just when the current running boom was taking off. Before long, he became the biggest name in race organizing, as race director of such major running events like the Milo Marathon and Unilab’s Run United series.

“I’m just giving back,” said Coach Rio, who clarifies that the amount he gives to help his athletes is minimal. He stressed that many supporters are coming forward with financial assistance and he’s just one of them.

Giving back, for him, is not just the money but also “the time and dedication” he gives to the team. He has stopped taking in individual coaching clients so he could spend more time training his athletes.

Only some 40 athletes of the 90-member track and field team are lined up for the UAAP. The rest, who are on standby, also attend the training but do not get a training allowance, Jimenez said.

Late allowances

Sprinter and hurdler Jaime Immanuel Mejia, 19, a civil engineering student, aired the same complaint. “Sometimes the allowance comes late, and supplies such as rubber shoes, are given after the competition,” he said. Last season, he got a one-time P3,000 training allowance and a P1,000 UAAP allowance given, he said, at the end of the competition.

Athletes can also use better gym equipment and medical support when injured, said Jimenez who suffered a knee injury and was forced out of training for six months.

“I did not get any medical support from Vaas,” he said, adding that his current work at Bread Community Church’s worship team enabled him to finance his ongoing treatment and daily needs.

Despite that, the UP track and field team managed to stay at third place in the last UAAP season, with Far Eastern University and University of Santo Tomas leading the pack, Mejia said.

Another track and field athlete, Rosanna Mae dela Rosa, 18, said a teammate’s generosity helped her stay in the course.

“I and two other teammates stay with the family of my teammate Gea Pelaez for free. The family only asked me to share in paying for water and electricity,” she said. “Her mom Gigi also feeds us; her dad Teodulfo drives us to our training. They see our passion and desire to get the training even without the assurance that we would be competing,” Dela Rosa said.

She added: “Mahirap, mahirap talaga. (It’s really difficult). Sometimes, we would practice even when we don’t wear the same uniform. Some can afford it, some can’t. But we still go on. My dream is for us to have a dorm for athletes, an allowance and of course to play in the UAAP. That’s every athlete’s dream,” she said.

Dalisay himself recalled once meeting an assistant coach “who said he would be late for a meeting as he had to feed some of his athletes. When I invited them over to eat instead, (I saw how) hungry the athletes were. That inspired me (to start the foundation),” he said.

“After an article I wrote, our Viber group got a lot of messages of support from UP alumni—offers of help from sponsoring recovery meals to fostering an athlete. Now, finally, we have institutionalized (these efforts),” he added.

Winning column

Dan Palami, the manager of the Maroons’ basketball team and the Azkals football team, said the nowheretogobutUP site will create an atmosphere of confidence among the athletes.

“We can’t deny that the players need support. Once they know that the alumni’s got their back, they will be able to play better,” Palami said. “We want our teams in the winning column. When players who want to go to UP realize there is alumni support, it will not be as difficult as before (to recruit players otherwise pirated by other universities),” Palami said.

UP alumni can choose to donate to a specific team or to a general fund, which will be used to support the varsity teams determined by the foundation as the most in need, Dalisay said.

They can also help by buying UP merchandise such as Fighting Maroons T-shirts and accessories through the foundation’s website, which can then be shipped or delivered to their homes, said Kokoy Mercado of the foundation.

“We are one UP, one nation,” said UP president Alfredo Pascual. “Our teams represent the whole UP. Let us bring UP to victory,” he added.

Bonfire

Said UP Diliman chancellor Michael Tan, referring to the bonfire held on campus to celebrate UP’s rare win in the last UAAP: “Because of our defeats, every victory is so precious.”

Already, the initiative has seen some results. Repairs on the UP track oval around the football field have started this year, with funds from UP, Palami and Sen. Pia Cayetano. The oval, used by athletes from the football, track and field and shotput teams, was expected to be completed around middle of next year, Palami said.

“Hopefully, the construction will be finished soon,” Tan said, “so our track and field players would not have to go to Ultra anymore.”

Recently, in response to the call of nowheretogobutUP Foundation, the management of the Philippine Stadium announced it was providing its facilities for free to the UP men’s and women’s track team. Coah Rio said they will start training at the Bocaue, Bulacan stadium for free. The sponsorship will include meals and transportation for the teams. This, according to Coach Rio, means that the UP team is “on the right track.”

Such developments also mean a lot to Jimenez and his fellow athletes. “I dream of becoming an Olympian and I will run my way to achieve it,” he said.

Visit https://nowheretogobutup.ph for more information on how to donate

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