|
IF
passion had a name, it would be The UAAP. And the NCAA.
If it had a face, it would be screaming fans, painted
faces, waving banners, in-your-face moves, proud school
jackets and school bodies singing their respective
school anthems, with pounding fists.
If
Passion were a color, it would take many hues: red and
white, blue and yellow, green and white, maroon and
green, blue and white, green and yellow, black and
yellow.
There is
no passion better expressed than passion that spews out
of school loyalty—no matter what age you are.
IN fact,
‘tis said alumni are sometimes more rabid than the
students or players of their respective schools. Could
it be because they direly miss the good old days of
strolling across their respective campuses? (No matter
if they loved to skip classes during their student
days.) Or that—older and wiser—they now better
appreciate the contributions their schools have made to
their personal enrichment, and they’re paying their
respects to their dear, dear alma mater?
Could it
be that watching the games turns back their clocks and
contributes to their anti-aging campaigns? Are they, for
one brief shining moment, young again, back in school,
and without their current concerns, problems and
obligations?
Wateva.
Young or old, collegiate games—University Athletic
Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and National
collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)—turn on the juice
for their fans and followers, bring on the good times
and unleash a different flavor of fervor. Check out the
stands. And the chatrooms. And the campuses on Monday
mornings.
SO
intense and competitive have the games become that all
aspects of the game have changed. The recruitment, for
one—which doesn’t just find able-bodied young athletes
in far-flung Philippine provinces, like savvy teams used
to do in the past. Finding good players has now spanned
geographical barriers and broadened racial limits, that
the “Encee” and the “Yuwap” now look a little bit more
like the National Basketball Association with its
Nowitzkis, Vujacics and Radmanoviches.
Team
budget, for another—which now runs in the double
millions, when hundreds of thousands used to work in the
distant past.
Team
setup, used to need just a head coach, one assistant
coach and a few other staff. Hmmm, teams are stacked up
these days with a whole coterie of trainers,
statisticians, scouts, medical consultants, video guys
and support staff that could rival Manny Pacquiao’s
procession.
And
television! It is the one singular reason why
competition is so keen, budgets are so high and this
whole thingamagig raises the roof. Everybody wants a
piece of the glory. And everybody wants to win.
WHICH is
good. And not so good, at the same time. In the opening
day ceremonies staged by host school University of the
Philippines (UP), the message—said in so many words in
music and dance—was that the UAAP (and the NCAA) is a
neighborhood. We play games with each other, we share
fun and togetherness, we compete, we try to excel, but
we never lose sight of our friendship. The shiny
medal—or the glittering trophy—must not be the only
objective of the competitions.
So, even
if it is entirely within the rules of the game that the
College of St. Benilde has formalized its protest
against San Beda’s Nigerian star center Sam Ekwe, “who
wore the wrong uniform in the Lions’ 71-54 triumph over
the Blazers in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at
the Cuneta Astrodome Friday,” we hope that this looking
for loopholes and errors does not become an overriding
obsession in both leagues.
It is a
sad task, acknowledged Henry Atayde, St. Benilde’s
representative to the management committee of the NCAA—but
“in fairness,” a sad task that must be done anyway, if
only to show the seriousness of league rules. “It is
with a heavy heart that we file the protest,” Atayde
said.
If
anything, this development should be a lesson for all
teams to “watch your backs,” and don’t give anybody any
chance to call or protest anything against you.
Everything’s fair game when there are rules that can be
invoked or thrown at you.
As for
the UAAP, where UP also had the chance to protest a
similar uniform violation against league-leading Ateneo
on Sunday (hard-court heartthrob Chris Tiu, for one, was
said not to be wearing the same uniform as his
teammates), UP chose not to pursue the protest—in the
name of the “neighborhood,” we think. Besides, it would
not have been a nice gesture on the part of the host,
would it?
BUT hey,
all that—pursuing a protest or not seeing it through—is
all part of the P word, Passion. Depends on what you’re
passionate about, of course. Which is so much better
than being blasé.
OVERTIME.
Hey, UP alumni, former Maroons, UP students, parents and
supporters of the UP-MBT! Go to “Yippee!! Yoopee!!—a
Happy Fundraising ‘Chorva’ for the UP Men’s Basketball
Team” on Sunday, July 27, at the UP Gym, UP Diliman. It
starts with a Mass at 5 p.m. Then the fun
roller-coasters after that. Don’t forget to wear maroon! |
