FIRST, a correction. Though USC won its fourth Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. title, it wasn’t a four-year streak as the Warriors’ reign was interrupted by the University of Cebu in 2015. I was reminded of that (I joined UC’s celebration that year) when I celebrated with the USC coaching staff and some of the parents of the squad after Sunday’s championship run.
Tenggoy Colmenares cooked the pizza himself that he served us at Red Gate, while Reeve Jumawan showed the proper way to crawl under a billiard table when we lost to coaches Dino and Patrick. (You really can’t call yourself a USC-TC student if you don’t know how to play billiards.) Last Sunday, USC finally played to its full potential and the 1-0 scoreline flattened the University of the Visayas, which was backpedaling for most of the match. Had USC played that way in all of its elimination round matches, it would have swept the competition. They were that dominant this year.
In their losses--to both USPF and the University of the Visayas--and in their draws, they dominated possession but couldn’t convert their chances. Plus, as their coaching staff would say, their players would suffer some mental breakdowns and forget the game plan.