THE national Private Schools Athletic Association (Prisaa) is now shelved to give way to the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) National Games set next month in Metro Manila.
The different athletic officials from the region will be meeting with Ched 7 director Amelia Biglete at the Southwestern University (SWU) to finalize the preparations for the games.
The Prisaa has been renamed the Regional Association of Higher Education Institution (Rahei) and held its regional finals last month in Bohol. Before, the winners of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) the local inter-school competitions, represented Cebu in the regionals against other leagues in the region to earn the right to compete in the national Prisaa.
This isn’t actually the first time Ched hosts the national games. It used to hold games for the tertiary level in the 1990s. The games were revived this year after the Prisaa, State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association (Scuaa) and the Philippine Sports Commission signed a memorandum of agreement to revive the event.
“Because of the collaboration, this will now be a bigger competition,” said Rahei officer in charge Ryan Aznar of SWU.
The event is aimed at discovering collegiate athletes from the 2,000 private school and colleges and 111 state colleges and universities all over the country.
More than 370 athletes, coaches and officials will represent Region 7 in the games.
The event will be held at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex from Feb. 23 to 28 and features 15 sports including basketball, volleyball, football, baseball, sepak takraw, swimming, athletics, table tennis and lawn tennis. Also highlighting the games are the two new events—beach volleyball and boxing.
The Cebuanos are expected to be the strongest contenders in beach volleyball. Cebu will be bannered by Mary Luilyn Pacinio and Krystal Joy Vuelban in the women’s division and Edward Ybañez of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation and University of the Visayas’ Jade Becaldo in the men’s division.
The complete list of the delegation will be known today during the meeting.