I met Rodney Orale in the sidelines of the Under 18 finals of the Aboitiz Cup last week and among the topics we talked about was the impending wholesale transfer of the DBTC senior high players to the University of Sto. Tomas.
For a couple of years, some three or four Manila schools have been courting the players, some individually, while others as a team. The latest to woo them was Marjo Allado of Global Cebu FC and UST.
Allado met with the parents of the players and somehow managed to convince them to enroll their kids at UST, something that could be a first. You see, though we’ve had a lot of Cebuanos who’ve gone on to football scholarships in Manila, this is the first time that a core of a team gets to transfer as one. The last one that I can remember was when the Carmen boys transferred to the University of the Visayas in the early 2000s.
And this is no ordinary team at that, as this DBTC batch has a long list of accomplishments. Rodney, whose son ER is a member of the batch, said the coaching staff of UST were impressed when they had a scrimmage in Manila lately and Rodney relayed that coach Marjo has warned his regulars that with the quality of the incoming players, no one’s spot in the team is assured.
I hope this wholesale transfer pushes through—in college sports, nothing is assured until you enroll—because I think this will be a boost not only for DBTC but for Cebu football. Manila has seen the best of our young players who made the move in the early 2000s—Miguel Caindec, Val Calvo to name a few—and this move might lead to some schools to look for more players here.
And of course, since Cebu schools also have spots to fill up in their lineup, that would open opportunities for players to get scholarships, players who’d otherwise be relegated to Team B.
This would mostly be palyers outside of the Metro Cebu area and when they make the college teams here, it will also help boost the sport in their own hometown. So yep, the benefits of this wholesale transfer will cascade.
Of course, if the initial batch of DBTC transferees prove to be successful, UST might even tap the school as its farm team, assuring the Greywolves an easy way to a collegiate scholarship.