RECRUITMENT woes and residency issues continue to haunt UST as it failed to regain the UAAP overall championship, which went to De La Salle University for the second straight season.
The Growling Tigers collected a total of 274 points, after getting only two gold medals in women’s taekwondo and poomsae, and a league-high eight silver medals in men’s basketball, beach volleyball, athletics, women’s fencing, men’s taekwondo and women’s football. La Salle finished with 289 points.
The University has been known to dominate the second semester sports, but its failure to keep topnotch athletes such as girls’ volleyball standouts Alyssa Valdez (lost to Ateneo de Manila University), Kim Fajardo (La Salle) and Dindin Santiago (National University) and junior Female Tigershark Mikee Bartolome (University of the Philippines) has been a major factor.
Fr. Ermito de Sagon, O.P., director of the Institute of Physical Education and Athletics, attributed UST's rather lackluster performance to a variety of reasons, including the usual departure of key players and inadequate financial support from benefactors such as alumni.
“This is school competition and we are dealing with student-athletes. We are not dealing with a professional organization like the Philippine Basketball Association where you can maintain the same players,” he said.
“We don’t try to win just for the sake of winning or at all cost. We don’t believe in that kind of philosophy.”
Former UST volleyball star Mozzy Ravena, mother of Blue Eagle Kiefer, recognized UST’s failure to keep up with the recruitment wars.
“[Recruitment] is really the basic problem because other schools are recruiting in many ways na hindi naman kaya ng UST. Even some of those from the [UST] High School are being recruited away although hindi rin naman natin mapipigilan yan,” she said. “Through the years, our coaches have been really good and we have a good program that is why many schools get players from us."
At the end of the day, De Sagon said it would be all up to the players who choose to stay in UST to deliver the overall championship.
“There are some players who may not be that tall but are fighters who would stop at nothing [until they win],” he said. “Hindi naman tayo napag-iiwanan, at least we are second as far as general championship is concerned.”
Last March 14, Sen. Pia Cayetano posted on her Twitter account that she had filed a bill eliminating the current two-year residency rule, a policy apparently intended to prevent homegrown athletes from being "pirated" by competing schools.
Under Senate Bill No. 2166 or the Student-Athletes Bill, high school students transferring to another UAAP member university could now play at once. Paul Kennedy A. Lintag
“inadequate financial support from benefactors such as alumni”? maybe we are not really reaching to our alumni of support? i beg to differ that we have few alumni who are willing to help. we have thousands of alumni out there.