EXCEPT for volleyball, sports events slated for the second part of the Baguio – Benguet Educational Athletic League (BBEAL) has yet to be scheduled due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) scare.
Eduardo Laureano, athletic director of the Cordillera Career Development College and Season 33 host, said the BBEAL has not scheduled the other allied sports for the second phase due to problems on venue.
“We have problems on venues because the Baguio Athletic Bowl is being prepared for the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association (Caraa),” Laureano said.
Laureano added they asked for the use of the athletic bowl sports complex, venue of most of the events, but these are either under renovation or being used for training of Baguio athletes for the upcoming Caraa meet.
Caraa was earlier scheduled this February 16 until 21 but was moved to another date when the city government ordered crowd-drawing events to be moved to another date, right before the supposed opening of the Baguio Flower Festival.
Members of the Caraa board said the games will start March 23 with the closing ceremony on March 27, a day before the formal opening of the Panagbenga with a parade.
The BBEAL is also composed of defending over-all champion University of Baguio (UB), University of the Cordilleras (UC), Saint Louis University (SLU), Philippine Military Academy (PMA), Pines City College (PCC), Baguio College of Technology (BCT), Baguio Central University (BCU), Benguet State University (BSU) and the University of the Philippines (UP)–Baguio.
UC is the defending men’s volleyball champion, while BCT, the smallest member of the league, earned its first title in women’s volleyball last year, the first team outside of the BBEAL’s big three (UB, UC, and SLU) to win a title in the second most popular sports event.
Other events supposedly scheduled this season are athletics, judo, swimming, lawn tennis, taekwondo, arnis, badminton, table tennis, and the demonstration sports Muay Thai and boxing.
“We can’t stage lawn tennis games, because the courts of the Baguio Tennis Club are being improved for the Caraa, the swimming pool is also used for training,” he said.
Laureano added BBEAL is still in limbo when to start the other games with competition in men’s and women’s volleyball firing off today, Feb. 29 at the CCDC gym in Buyagan after the formal opening.
The former Gintong Alay athlete added volleyball will be the only event that will have full attendance with 10 member schools sending a team for both men and women.
“This is the first time in BBEAL to have all teams in an event,” he said adding schools will be playing in a single round-robin format instead of the two bracket format that denies all teams playing against each other.