UST ATHLETICS director Fr. Rodel Cansancio, O.P. challenged Thomasian athletes to innovate on their approach and strategies to their game as they gear up for UAAP Season 87.
Copying practices, Cansancio said, is an easy route where athletes have the tendency of blindly following others.
“We lack people who are philosophers and critical thinkers kasi gusto natin na kopyahin na lang, without really thinking and digging deeper on what it really says,” Cansancio said in his homily during Mass at the Santisimo Rosario Parish prior to UST’s UAAP kickoff party on Friday, Sept. 6.
“Hindi pwedeng sabihin natin, ‘Ay ‘yon ‘yong nakagawian namin. You just follow without really thinking what you are following.’”
Cansancio, also regent of the Institute of Physical Education and Athletics, urged Thomasian athletes to give their best this season in anticipation of UST’s hosting of UAAP Season 88 next year.
Quoting scriptures, he said “new wine should be poured out into new wineskins,” which means new ideas should be met with a new approach for it to be successful.
“We have to be critical. We have to be innovative. The same with life and sports, gan’un din ‘yong challenge sa atin…New wine should be poured into new wineskins.”
This innovation is in line with “spiritual congruence,” the athletics director said.
“What Jesus is trying to challenge us is to have a spiritual congruence. Kung ano ‘yong ginagawa ng iyong kamay, dapat ‘yon din ‘yong iniisip at ‘yon din ‘yong sinasabi.”
With the theme “Stronger, Better, Together,” UAAP Season 87 will kick off on Saturday, Sept. 7 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.Vince Alfred M. Pillagara with reports from Ammiel B. Maestrado
