UC not ready to pass mantle

Contrary to initial fears, there was no changing of the guards in the recent Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals after the University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters reaffirmed their mastery in the secondary division.

Winning the secondary crown was expected. Why they were pushed to their limits to do it was not.

After being unchallenged in the previous editions of the annual school-based, multi-sporting event, UC was forced to come up with a strong finishing kick to retain the crown.

UC amassed 176.25 points while second placers University of San Carlos-Basic Education Department (USC-BED) was tantalizingly close with 161.5 points.

Bernard Ricablanca, athletic director of UC, admitted that retaining the crown was a struggle but the school found a silver lining in the shaky campaign, believing that for every difficulty, there is an opportunity.

“It will be an opportunity to assess ourselves. That close battle will help us realize that we have to work harder. Obviously, the other schools are improving so we also have to improve more,” said Ricablanca.

Since the tournament’s inception, no other school has won the secondary crown other than UC. But the close win raised a lot of questions.

Are the Webmasters starting to slow down? For how long can they keep the crown? Is it just a matter of time before UC’s dominance ends?

Ricablanca said UC isn’t ready to pass the mantle.

“There’s no reason to worry. It was the hardest win for us. It may be the hardest but it doesn’t mean that we are slowing down,” said Ricablanca.

Ricablanca said some of the school’s consistent medal finishers graduated last year and that’s the main reason why its production dwindled, especially in athletics.

The recent competition saw UC losing for the first time in the secondary girls athletics. The rampaging Iloilo National High School came away with the title after tallying 30 points, while UC only had 20.

“I know some people are saying that our program is weakening. It’s not. Our program is for a long-term goal. It takes years to fully develop an athlete. We are still developing our athletes who replaced those who already graduated,” said Ricablanca.

Ricablanca said some schools earned additional points because they competed in all events even if they have less chances of winning.

“Because the competition is points system, some schools would compete in almost every event to earn points. But for us, we go for quality over quantity. We make sure that we will excel in every competition,” said Ricablanca.

UC didn’t compete in football, sepak takraw, lawn tennis and gymnastics.

Winning the 17th crown was the hardest and was naturally the sweetest.

“It was the sweetest since we were really challenged. It was really something since we have a lot of freshmen in the competition and yet were able to come out on top,” said Ricablanca.

Ricablanca said that although the outcome of the competition hung in the balance until the very last day of the meet, he never doubted that the school can pull through.

As a reward, Ricablanca said school owner Augustus Go gave P100,000 to the Webmasters. On top of that, UC also bagged the tournament’s P40,000 top purse.

Ricablanca said half of the prize was donated to the school’s chapel, which will be renovated in time for the beatification of Pedro Calungsod next month.

Last year, the school donated its winnings to typhoon victims in Metro Manila.

Ricablanca said the remaining amount will be given to the medal finishers. Gold finishers will get at least P500 while the non-medal finishers will get at least P200 each.

Ricablanca revealed that P50,000 was spent for the athletes’ victory party.

That may be a lot for merrymaking but emerging as champions for the 17th straight time definitely calls for a big celebration.