POWERHOUSE schools in Cebu are set to defend their turf in the 2018 Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals, which is set to fire off on Aug. 30 with an estimated 5,000 participants from the Visayas regions.
After dominating the tournament for years, Cebu lost grip of the elementary title, which went to visiting St. John from Bacolod.
One of the local teams to watch out for in the school-based sporting meet will be the reigning secondary overall champion University of San Carlos Basic Education Department (USC-Bed), former champion University of Cebu (UC) and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC).
UC’s head of athletic department Jessica Honoridez told SunStar Cebu that the school will be sending more participants compared to last year.
“I don’t have the exact number yet because the coaches are still in the process of submitting the final lineup but I have the list of sports that we will be joining and I can say that I think we will have more this year,” she said.
In the 15 sporting events, UC’s secondary squad will be joining in all but basketball, football and sepak takraw. The elementary team will compete in five to seven sporting events.
“We were informed as early as last year that we will be joining in Milo Little Olympics, so the athletes had a long time to prepare for this. This will gauge the progress of the athletes coming off the summer training,” she said.
On the other hand, the Canduman-based school SHS-AdC will be fielding a total of around 100 athletes in the secondary and elementary divisions, according the schools athletic director Rico Navarro.
“Everyone is excited since it’s the first big event of the school year. Our battlecry is to have fun and to give it their all. If a medal is won, then that’s a bonus,” he said.
Athletic coach Arvin Loberanis of USC-Bed, meanwhile, said that right now the track and field team’s preparation for the event is now 80 percent complete. (RSC)