Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Cesafi lays down rules on importing players
WITH the growing number of Fil-foreigners beefing up the line-up of basketball teams for this season’s Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi), the latter wants to make sure that there will still be equal chances for these recruits and the local players.
Because of the growing number of Filipino-foreigners in the teams, Cesafi had implemented a rule that will allow only one Fil-Foreigner playing on the court at a time per team.
“This is for parity’s sake. This should give locals the chance to play. Otherwise, if not regulated, it might become an all-Filipino-foreigner league,” said commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy after their meeting with athletic directors and coaches last week.
Factor
With University of the Visayas’ (UV) Filipino-American 6-foot-7 gem Gregory Slaughter proving to be a crowd drawer and whose presence had helped UV’s staggering seven straight title success, a number of schools have decided to get the services of more Filipino-Foreigners. However, some have exaggerated and acquired more than one of these tall players.
Not one team, however, has divulged their Fil-Foreigner recruits or their line-up for that matter, yet.
This rule is just one of the many changes that are to be implemented this season, which will be run army-style. “No colored hair, no tomahawk hair cut, no ponytails.
These are all prohibited. We expect the players to look decent on court,” he added.
“The rationale for that is they are representing their universities so it is necessary for them to do so in a neat and decent manner,” said Tiukinhoy.
Meanwhile, stricter rules for academic loads of athletes are also to be implemented this year. Instead of the minimum 12 units that each athlete needs to enroll in a semester, it was raised to 15 units.
Tiukinhoy stressed the importance of balancing the athletes’ responsibilities as athletic scholars and as students.
Drug test
Meanwhile, another important addition to the rules that will be instigated this year is the drug testing. Random drug tests will also be done on random athletes all throughout the tournament.
Plans on having drug tests never materialized in the past seasons and Cesafi administration is putting its foot down this year. Those testing positive for illegal substance will be facing stiff sanctions.
With less than two months remaining before the unveiling of the 2008-2009 season of Cebu’s premier inter-collegiate competition, the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc., preparations are well underway for an exciting basketball season when it opens on August 2 at the Cebu Coliseum. MCB
