New Cesafi events

After adding girls futsal last year, the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. is adding weightlifting this year to its calendar of events, a nod to the growing popularity of the sport thanks to Hidilyn Diaz’s silver medal in the Rio Olympics.

It’s not a knee-jerk reaction as Cesafi conducted seminars to help push the sport, while the Cebu City Sports Commission also conducted grassroots development programs every summer for the past couple of years. So you have essentially two programs that complement each other.

After years of sticking to the usual, it is refreshing that Cesafi is open to changes and to adding new things. That’s the only way to stay relevant these days. These are baby steps, but what is important is that baby steps are taken.

Also, adding new sports means giving more student-athletes a chance to finish a degree on an athletic scholarship, and that I think is the ultimate goal of some of the athletes. Some dream of Olympic glory, but most dream of a diploma, and there is nothing wrong with both.

I hope, too, that Cesafi will consider other popular sports or sports that are gaining traction like billiards, bowling and 3-on-3 basketball. Billiards and bowling have always been two of the country’s most popular sports and billiards is in the Palarong Pambansa already. I hope to see both of them in the Cesafi and I think, what is needed is for a group to take the lead in making the push for Cesafi to include the sports in its calendar.

Weightlifting got included because the local head of the Philippine Weightlifting Association is also the Cesafi commissioner and both bowling and billiards should see that as a positive, not a negative. All they have to do is present Cesafi the positives in including their sports in the calendar.

Of the three, 3-on-3 basketball seems to be the most likely that would be added, owing to the growing popularity of this variant of basketball. There are various national events being organized and there is even a planned 3-on-3 professional league by Gilas Pilipinas’ chief sponsor that will be organized with an eye toward the Olympics. So, I think it’s just a matter of time before this variant of the game gets included in the collegiate leagues, Cesafi included.

Aside from adding different sports, I hope that the Cesafi will finally consider awarding an overall champion this year as this would be a reward for schools that will have a complete athletic program, not one that is strong in one or two sports.

And perhaps, to further push the school, the Cesafi overall trophy will go to the school that has the most victories in both the Cesafi athletic and academic events. Yep, the Cesafi is not all about athletic events; there are a lot of academic contests in the second semester.

Or perhaps, the Cesafi can have an overall trophy for both the athletic and academic contests. Either way, I hope the Cesafi considers it because it’s a reward for schools that field athletes or win in more contests.

Determining the overall champion is easy and Cesafi can either follow the Milo Little Olympics formula or the City Olympics formula. And it has all the advantages since Cesafi has tournament managers involved in both events.