Wednesday, February 13, 2008 Prisaa 7 aims for better finish in national meet By Rommel C. Manlosa Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Private Schools Athletic Association (Prisaa)-7 is aiming to improve on its third place finish last year in the 2008 National Prisaa meet in Zamboanga City on April 6 to 12.
University of Cebu Athletic Director Bernard Ricablanca told Sun.Star Cebu that since 90 percent of the delegation are from Cebu, the training of the athletes will start early.
“Well, as early as next week the athletes will start their training already. This time, it will be light because there are examinations to cope with but we already had a program for that and we will have enough time to train them better,” Ricablanca said.
Cebu Prisaa won 214 out of the 245 gold medals in the regional meet last weekend.
“In athletics only two will be added from Bohol. In swimming, we will have the most bemedaled athletes from Dumaguete, Zoe Menguito and Hywel Ramacho, as addition to the Cebu swimmers. In Taekwondo, we also have four from Bohol and one from Oriental Negros. That’s the composition of our Prisaa-7 team basically and they start their training individually before we will train as a group before we sail for Zambaoanga,” Ricablanca said.
However, Prisaa-7’s concern is the women’s softball team of Bohol which won the gold medal.
“That we have to put a special attention. We are considering to send Dionisio Bacarisas to Bohol to train the team. We have to spend extra money and effort to make them more competitive,” said Ricablanca.
Exhibition
Though they won the gold the Bohol’s women’s softball was beaten black and blue in an exhibition game against the Abellana National High team last Saturday.
Aside from its concern for the athletes, Prisaa-7 officials are also considering other matters, among them the date of departure from the delegation.
“We will have a meeting tomorrow (today) to discuss the day of departure. We are looking at April 1 for our departure date. That would give us ample time to rest,” he said.
Prisaa-7 hoping to surpass its 43-63-50 gold-silver-bronze finish last year.
