THE Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) elected a new president who will try to guide the biggest sporting organization outside of Metro Manila.
The 12 member-schools elected University of San Carlos (USC) president Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD, to lead Cesafi for the school year 2016-2017.
Fr. Miranda will replace Fr. Manny Uy, SJ, of Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu, who presided the league for three school years, starting in 2013-2014.
Elected along with Fr. Miranda were Fr. Cris Maspara, OAR, of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) as the new vice-president, Fr. Uy was elected secretary and Eric Ong of the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) was elected treasurer.
In the same meeting, the proposed revision of the rules were also approved by the board and will be implemented starting the opening of the new school year.
The revisions include increasing the age limit to 25 from 24 for the collegiate players and to 18 from 17 for the high school students. The cut-off date has also been moved to June 30, instead of Dec. 31 under the old rules.
Cesafi will also comply with the guidelines of the Student-Athlete Protection Act (RA 10676) which was approved last year. The Magna Carta for Student Athletes, which was proposed by Sen. Pia Cayetano, calls for the limiting of the residency requirement for college players and excluding graduating high school athletes from the residency rules should they transfer schools.
This year, college students who wish to transfer schools will only need to sit one year instead of two, while an incoming senior high player is no longer required to serve one year residency if he or she will transfer to a school that has his or her preferred academic track.
The season will be also extended from July 30 to December, spreading the calendar for other sports to shine aside from basketball, football and volleyball.
Usually, Cesafi starts with basketball in August, while the other events start a month after the basketball event opens.
The proposed elementary basketball tournament was shelved for this school year.