Thursday, June 19, 2008 Players in fistfights will face one-year suspension
WHOLESOMENESS is the motif for this year’s Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi).
The Cesafi officials and the team’s coaches and athletic directors met the other day to amend the sanctions that will be slapped on players, who figure in a free-for-all.
“We want to keep the games wholesome and entertaining that is why we will be giving stiffer penalties. Players will now have to think twice before they throw a punch,” said Cesafi commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy.
The stiff penalty that Tiukinhoy is referring to is the slapping of erring athletes with up to a one-year ban depending on the gravity of the offense.
Before, players only face a possible suspension of 1-5 games.
There has never been a year in Cesafi, where it is so peaceful that no fistfights occurred. With the new ruling, it will be a big challenge for the players, especially the known trouble-makers and hot-heads, to contain themselves.
In another development, the group decided that the women’s basketball competition will be scrapped this year because of very few participants.
After years of settling for second place, the women’s basketball of University of San Carlos finally nailed its first championship last year. Little did they know that they could no longer defend the crown.
Meanwhile, playing in the opening game on Aug. 2 at the Cebu Coliseum is perennial runner up USC Warriors, which will be parading its gigantic cast of Filipino-Americans, against an all-Filipino cast of Southwestern University.
For the past two years, USC had failed to snatch the title losing to powerhouse University of the Visayas on both occasions.
This year, USC will be playing without top gunner Niño Ramirez. To fill the hole, USC tapped the services of Filipino-Australian Emel Rowe and a few other Filipino-foreigners, who have not finalized their entries yet. (MCB)
