MANILA—In an informal, unofficial survey conducted by Inquirer.net among casual sports fans, close to seven out of 10 people can name the basketball champions in the UAAP the last five years.
Less than two, however, can name the UAAP overall champion in the same stretch.
Funny, because one team has won the title the last five years. The last decade, in fact. The last 12 years, actually.
And unless one of the other seven schools steps up in the second semester, University of Santo Tomas will end up bagging a 13th straight overall title, a testament to the gold standard the school has set in the country’s premier collegiate league.
“Year after year we always go out there and do our best to capture the championship,” said Fr. Ernesto de Sagon, UST’s Institute of Physical Education and Athletics director. “But we really just hope for the best, we just don’t know how things will turn out.”
The Tigers are expected to acquit themselves well in several second-semester sports and add to its current league-leading 154-point total.
UST, for instance, is expected to do well in tennis, where the defending champion men’s squad has won six titles since 2001. The women’s team, on the other hand, has five crowns in that same stretch, including four straight from 2005 to 2009.
UST is also favored in volleyball, where the men’s squad—the three-time defending champion—has won five titles since the 2001 season and hasn’t finish lower than third in the last five seasons.
The distribution of points for each event according to finish is 15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.
The women’s volleyball squad has won two crowns since 2001 but has made the Final Four in the last five seasons.
In football, the UST men’s team has also made the Final Four every time since 2001, including winning the title in the 2006-07 season.
UST, which will be celebrating its 400th year in 2011, is currently trailed by La Salle (141), Far Eastern U and University of the Philippines (111 each).
UST’s string of overall championships has been overshadowed by schools that have won the much-hyped basketball championship. The last time the Tigers ruled UAAP hoops was in 2006 and they haven’t been as dominant a team as they were in the early 90s.
But it hasn’t forced a shift of priorities as far as the school’s support of its student athletes is concerned.
“We give equal importance to all our sporting events, not just basketball,” said de Sagon. “Our university will try to really balance things so we are not only recruiting only for basketball. We try to build all our athletes, all the teams, really giving them equal opportunity and more or less equal incentives, even in terms of the small allowance that we give—they’re all the same even if you’re from basketball, fencing or athletics.
“We try really to promote all the events, because we teach in PE also that every person has his/her own sports—sports for life, and not everyone can go for basketball.”
The Tigers copped first place honors in women’s taekwondo, women’s judo, men’s badminton and men’s table tennis.
Meanwhile, they placed second on men’s beach volleyball, men’s swimming, men’s taekwondo, and men’s judo, which was equivalent to 12 points per victory.
La Salle captured its first men’s taekwondo championship in a decade and also finished runner-up in men’s table tennis and the women’s side of badminton, beach volleyball and table tennis.
Ateneo, despite winning the prestigious senior men’s basketball crown, is fifth in the standings with accumulated 98 points, UE came in next with 71, Adamson with 63 and National U with 33.
FEU is also expected to make solid runs in the second semester, with the Tamaraws favored in football, athletics and volleyball.
Other second semester events will include chess, fencing, softball and baseball. Photo from The Varsitarian Sports Magazine
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