Thursday, July 06, 2006
Jesuits ready to unseat UC
By Marian C. Baring
Sun.Star Correspondent
For the past nine years, the University of Cebu (UC) have virtually been uncontested in the secondary division of the Milo Little Olympics. This year, the Webmasters’ skills might just be tested as they face a new and improved Sacred Heart School-Jesuits (SHS-J).
“The Webmasters have been unstoppable,” said tournament director Ricky Ballesteros of the Webmasters, who collared nine overall titles in the meet’s 10-year existence. “But it will not be easy for them this year with the emergence of the Jesuits,” said Ballesteros.
This year’s Milo Little Olympics opens on Sept. 8 at the Cebu City Sports Center.
The 2005 edition was a year of firsts for SHS-J, pulling out stellar performances in snatching the Elementary Division title for the first time, and barging into the top ten of the high school division, also for the first time.
Sports program
“SHS-J has been developing its sports program and they stand a good chance of making it to the top,” Ballesteros said.
Adela Alguno, SHS-J P.E. coordinator and assistant to sports director Fr. Julian Hernando, said that the past few months have been hectic for them.
“We are hoping to keep the title in the Elementary Division and improve our ranking in the high school class,” Alguno said.
The SHS-J high-school squad finished sixth last year.
Alguno said they recently acquired the services of top coaches to help them train their wards and that their preparation for the event started early.
“Since June, we have announced to the students that we had tryouts and we encouraged them to join. We came up with a list of students who would make up the teams and training started,” Algano said.
New team
She also said that aside from strengthening their swimming and athletics programs, they will also field a badminton team this year.
Meanwhile, Ballesteros said that they expect more teams to join this year despite already having a record field of participant-schools last year.
Last year, 6,000 athletes from 280 schools took part in the two-weekend sports festival. This year, 20 more schools are expected to join.
“We already have confirmation from schools in Bacolod, Iloilo and Roxas,” Ballesteros added.
The meet will feature games in volleyball, chess, table tennis, lawn tennis, badminton, scrabble, football, track and field, swimming, taekwondo, sepak takraw and gymnastics.
It is only in the Visayas leg of the Milo Olympics, where 12 sports are calendared, compared to Manila, which only has ten.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 6, 2006 issue)
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