A COUPLE of years ago, most of the starting unit of the Don Bosco Technical Center’s football team signed up for the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) in the UAAP. But before that happened, UST coach Marjo Allado engaged in a year-long recruitment that had him visiting Cebu to meet with school officials and the parents of the players for almost a year. It was understood that the batch, one of Don Bosco’s most successful, won’t be the first to be courted to sign up for UST and that coach Allado’s way of recruiting the team made the Tigers the preferred team of choice.
A couple of days ago, Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu learned that its Cesafi (Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc.) basketball star player LA Casinillo was going to take his talents to UST. School officials were blind to the negotiations and only learned of the move when the news broke out in social media.
Now, tell me, which of the two recruitment styles had Cesafi commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy up in arms?
The first one by the UST football coach or the second one by the UST basketball coach?
Sadly, the unethical practice is what prevails. Coaches treat players as commodities and what better to assure yourself that you’d get such commodity by doing the negotiation in the sly, hoping that other coaches won’t be aware. It is what oils the wheels of the dirty world that is college basketball recruitment. If negotiations are done in the sly, what would prevent a coach to promise the stars to the parents to get them to convince their kid to sign up with him and once done, what would prevent him to only deliver the moon since the player has already signed up?
Casinillo wasn’t the first and won’t be the last but if commissioner Tiukinhoy will have his way, that should be the last time a Cesafi member is left holding an empty bag. This can be easily done by the way, proof of that is how the UST football coach conducted his own recruitment. All it needs is courtesy and some decency in the recruiting party.
Tiukinhoy and the Cesafi won’t prevent a player’s transfer. That’s not their goal. What they want is to be informed and in a way, be involved in the recruitment process. Is the player getting what he should be getting? Will he be getting academic support? These questions were answered by the football recruitment process and were not by the basketball process.
To do that, there must be some coordination between the leagues regarding player transfers. If a league can have mechanisms to regulate the transfer of its players from its member schools, why can’t two leagues agree on a mechanism to make the movement of players transparent?
It’s not that hard and impossible as what the UST football coach showed.
But will the UAAP, or the NCAA, agree to that? Will the Manila leagues respect the sentiments of the Cesafi members in the same way that they do for their members? The time for underhanded tactics is done. It’s time to put some transparency in the recruitment process.
Your move, UAAP.