Rain-hit UAAP opening still a spectacle

Photo by Celest Flores

MANILA—Not even the heavy rain could dampen the school spirit.

With the theme, “All Out, All Heart,” it took more than heart for the athletes, audience and the program participants to stand under the deluge in the UAAP Season 74 opening ceremonies at the open field of the Marikina Sports Complex Saturday.

Close to 4,000 athletes, from the juniors and seniors division of all the 15 sports, donned their university colors with matching umbrellas and paraded around the track oval.

“The theme says it all, the games are more than just games,” said Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, S.J., the president of Ateneo, this season’s host.

“These games are more than just physical prowess, these games are also a matter of heart,” Villarin added n his speech.

University of Santo Tomas, the perennial overall champion, boasted the biggest delegation with more than 600 athletes sporting fluffy Tiger head gears and the liveliest entrance as selected students carried placards emblazoned with the letters U-S-T.

Ateneo, the last to be called, showed off its latest prized addition with the towering center Greg Slaughter, who was wearing a white jacket in the sea of blue, bearing the school flag.

Far Eastern University, National University, Adamson University, University of the East, University of the Philippines and De La Salle University were also in full force.

All of the schools’ boosters, along with students in attendance, were at the covered part of the grandstand to accompany the parade with their patented school cheers.

Olsen Racela, one of the PBA’s top guards of all time and Ateneo’s noted alumnus, led the lighting of the cauldron—like that of in the Olympics—to formally open season 74.

The Olympic-style opening ceremony was an effort to usher a new era that UAAP goes beyond basketball, with the past openings always coinciding with the first day of the men’s basketball competition.

But rain did spoil the performances prepared by the Ateneo Blue Babble battalion, dance troupes and selected students as the field became muddy and slippery.

Spongecola, whose members all came from the host school Ateneo, performed the song “Puso,” which is all about the blood, sweat and tears of an athlete.