A WEEK after winning the futsal title in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc., Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu continued its romp and brought home the Girls 18 title of the AboitizLand Football Cup. Some of the players are a year or two off the cutoff, showing the depth of the Ateneo team.
In this age group, it seems Ateneo is the standard and its longevity speaks volumes. Before, it was St. Theresa’s College who ruled this but STC has suffered a drought lately and didn’t even have a team.
USC, now coached by Roseton Bariñan, the same coach who gave Ateneo its first futsal crown in the Palarong Pambansa, is slowly developing its high school program after years of concentrating in the college program.
USC finished second to Ateneo, losing only on goal difference, as both teams had a 3-1 record.
What’s next for the two teams? It’s the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association meet where more will be at stake. Ateneo will be representing Mandaue, while USC will be representing Cebu City and I’m confident that the two will meet in the finals unless of course, Talisay plays a spoilsport.
What’s good about the two teams meeting regularly in competitive matches is that it will bode well for Central Visayas in the Palarong Pambansa. I think that’s what helped Ateneo greatly during its first championship run in the Palarong Pambansa a couple of years ago.
That’s what having more teams compete will get you. So, I hope there will be more girls teams in the future AboitizLand Football competition. Southwestern University just joined the Cesafi and I hope the next part of its program will be the AboitizLand Cup.
Erco DB, manned by members of the Don Bosco Technical College high school team, was also the winner in the Men’s Division 2 contest but impressive as its win was, I was really impressed when I saw the scorer for the other team, Norman Fegidero. This legendary player was already bending it like Beckham before even the parents of the Erco DB players met and here he is, decades later still scoring at will against guys young enough to be his son.
Erco DB, by the way, won all its matches and conceded only one goal in the whole tournament—to Fegidero.
Aside from Division 2, Coach Norman is also playing in the 45-Above Division and that’s a testament to his fitness.