SEPERATED by a mere goal from last season’s championship, Season 74 runner-up UST Golden Booters will play this season sans nine of last year’s 11 starters.
The España-based skippers, who were eked by reigning champions University of the Philippines in last season’s finals match with a 0-1 tally, lost six players to academic deficiencies while the other three decided to go home to their provinces.
Starting goalkeeper Ramon Burigas, defenders Noel Francisco, Nicanor Palacio, and Darel Regula along with midfielder Fraymund Bito-On and striker Fidel Kue, will all miss action this season due to academic deficiencies.
“Sa UAAP kasi, you have to pass 60 percent of your academics. It just so happened that they did not pass that mark,” said Fr. Ermito de Sagon, O.P., director of the Institute on Physical Education and Athletics.
Two of the three players who went back to their hometowns, midfielders Bryan Parao and striker Christian Dejuan, attended to family matters while defender Timothy Bolo transferred to De La Salle University-Bacolod.
Amid all the surrounding critical stipulations, Booters coach Marjo Allado remains focused and unfazed by the challenge.
Allado believes that some of his new recruits from the provinces, along with promoted bench players from last season, are more than enough to fill-in the shoes of the lost starters.
“Skills-wise, lalaban pa rin ‘tong team natin,” Allado said. “Kung hindi championship ang goal natin, bakit pa tayo lalaban?”
The drama of the major roster shake-up is heightened by the tight race in the UAAP overall championships, wherein UST (145 points) trails De La Salle University (152 points) at the close of the first semester hostilities.
Despite bagging five championships in the opening semester of Season 75 as compared with La Salle’s two (women’s taekwondo and women’s table tennis), UST failed to land in top three of some events, paving the way for La Salle to pile up more points and grab pole position in the race. La Salle finished top three in all sports except men’s basketball and men’s beach volleyball.
Aside from football, UST’S position in the race depends on the performances of the volleyball, baseball, softball, lawn tennis, chess, athletics, and fencing teams. JOSE ANTONIO R. NISAY
