A JANUARY 2021 opening of Season 83 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) looms as the government continued to ban mass gatherings that could go well beyond the scheduled May 15 lifting of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila.
UAAP Executive Director Rebo Saguisag told the 2OT podcast over the weekend that restrictions set by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases make it look improbable to set the Season 83 opening in September.
“The government will bar us from holding mass gatherings. As you know, the lifting of the ECQ was moved from April 14 to April 30, then extended again to May 15,” Saguisag said.
“People have to understand that Season 82 was due to end on May 31,” he said. “We can extend the season, but you have to also understand that Season 83 will be too tight, and it’s not fair.”
The UAAP decided to abruptly end Season 82 last April 7 resulting to the cancellation of competitions in volleyball, football, athletics, tennis, baseball, softball and 3×3 basketball.
Saguisag said the UAAP is studying all options on when to start Season 83.
“By canceling Season 82, we feel that it gives us [wiggle] room for Season 83 to work on, rather than having two missed seasons,” he said. “We’d rather lose the battle to win the war.”
The athletes’ competitiveness is also a factor, Saguisag said.
“The season usually starts in September. Even if it’s [ECQ] lifted, you have to consider the time to condition the players to avoid injuries,” he said.
All sports events in the country—like elsewhere in the world—were canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
ATHLETES HELP OUT DURING PANDEMIC
NAZARETH School of National University’s Kevin Quiambao, University of Santo Tomas’s Mark Nonoy and University of the Philippines’s (UP) Ricci Rivero, all basketball players, and Ateneo’s Maxine Esteban, a champion fencer, has done their share in helping out during the crisis.
The 6-foot-8 Quiambao, a member of the Season 82 boys’ Mythical Team, distributed packed meals to military frontliners, barangay officials and community volunteers in Barangay Bayanan in Muntinlupa.
Quiambao, 19, and a member of the national 3×3 youth team, pooled funds from his own pocket, friends and family to produce 150 packed meals of spicy pork ribs, boiled egg and steamed rice.
“It’s our way of appreciating the sacrifice of the frontliners,” Quiambao said. “It makes me proud as a Filipino and that I have become an instrument of the Lord to help in any way I can.”
Nonoy, on the other hand, is observing the ECQ in his hometown of La Carlota in Negros Occidental. And to help during the pandemic, the Season 82 men’s Rookie of the Year also distributed packed meals to military and barangay frontliners in Barangay II (Poblacion).
“I wanted to help and this is my simple way of honoring frontliners,” said Nonoy, who used his savings as well as pooled contributions from family and friends to fund the packed meals.
Like Nonoy, Rivero is with his family at the comforts of their ancestral home in Isabela.
To make the ECQ worthwhile, Rivero—together with brothers Prince and Rasheed, father and NU juniors assistant coach Paolo, and good friend John Vic de Guzman, have gone around the province distributing relief goods to medical frontliners and people in need.
“It’s been a while since I stayed in Isabela this long since I came to Manila and I wanted to maximize the chance to give back and support my kababayans here who needs help,” Rivero, 21, said.
The Riveros also donated respiratory care and hygiene essentials to the medical staff of Dr. Villaroman Hospital and Isabela Doctors Hospital.
For Esteban, she donated her entire 2019 allowance as a national athlete from the Philippine Sports Commission for her “A Small Thing Goes A Long Way” fund-raising drive for medical frontliners and vulnerable communities.
Wanting to reach exactly P500,000, the 19-year-old national fencer decided to add her allowance and her incentive for sharing a bronze medal in team foil event in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
“First off, I want to thank all our donors, without whom this project would not have been possible,” Esteban said.
Esteban said they bought sacks of rice and personal protective equipment which they donated to the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Medical Center, University of Santo Tomas Hospital, National Children’s Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Metropolitan Medical Center and San Juan City Hall.
Esteban, a Management Engineering sophomore, and her sisters are also working on 10 paintings that they intent sell or auction to raise more funds for frontliners.