FILE PHOTO — Students from participating schools during the UAAP 81 opening ceremony at the Mall of Asia Arena. INQUIRER PHOTO/ Sherwin Vardeleon
MANILA, Philippines — The UAAP is staging a total of 60 events in 21 sports this upcoming Season 85, which kicks off with the men’s basketball tournament on October 1.
After holding just seven events in the previous season in Season 84 last Summer, the collegiate league is bringing back the full athletic calendar for the first time this pandemic era.
UAAP Season 85 president Fr. Aldrin Suan of host Adamson and league executive director Atty. Rebo Saguisag bared that women’s basketball, men’s volleyball, men’s and women’s football, athletics, and swimming will be back after two-year inactivity.
Also part of the calendar are badminton, chess, table tennis, judo, taekwondo, fencing, softball, baseball, lawn tennis, 3×3 basketball, men’s and women’s beach volleyball, cheer dance competition, and street dance.
“The rationale is because we are resuming the face-to-face (classes). With that kind of situation, in the UAAP, we hope to reinstate all the events. Of course, it depends on the pronouncement of the government regulations. But as far as UAAP is concerned, we are bringing things into normal,” said Suan in the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum on Tuesday.
JUNIORS EVENTS
The UAAP is also looking to bring back high school tournaments such as boys basketball, juniors football, juniors volleyball, and boys and girls beach volleyball.
“If ever there will be restrictions from DepEd, of course, we are bound to follow it, to abide with it,” the official from Adamson added.
Suan said the league wants to live up to its theme for the 85th season: “Rise as one” which inspired them to bring back the full athletic calendar.
“It’s not just about the UAAP, but rather it’s about the articulations of the situation of the country,” he said. “We hope that UAAP’s (return), will signal to the whole Filipino community that we are going back to normal, and we are trying to recover. Not only to recover but trying to elevate our life to a higher level.”
The opening ceremony will be pre-recorded and will be aired on Cignal TV at 12:30 p.m. on October 1 before Adamson and University of Santo Tomas kick off the men’s basketball season at 2 p.m. Defending champion University of the Philippines opens its title retention quest against La Salle at 4 p.m.
Runner-up Ateneo is opening its redemption season against Final Four rival Far Eastern University on Sunday at 4 p.m., right after the 2 p.m. showdown between preseason champion National University and University of the East.
LESSONS LEARNED
The UAAP has set quadruple-headers on Wednesdays as it seeks to give way for the fifth window of the Fiba World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers in November. The league also said that aside from the Ateneo-La Salle game, it will also sell separate tickets for the game day of last season’s finalist UP and Ateneo.
The patron seats will be available for the fans but in a limited capacity.
UST won the Season 84 general championship despite the limited events such as men’s basketball, women’s volleyball, 3×3 basketball, men’s beach volleyball, chess, poomsae, and cheerdance.
Saguisag said that last season had prepared them to go full blast this year.
“Now that we have gone through different phases, full bubble, semi bubble, and now we’re under alert level 1, we know how to navigate our way,” Saguisag said. “This is the way of the future. The way that we conduct classes, the way that we conduct meetings, the way we conduct work, these are lessons learned from COVID that we will, that we have to carry on in Season 85, as we rise as one.”