To nobody’s surprise, the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) standard-bearers remain the same: there’s the defending champions Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras and runners-up, University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers. And then, there’s everybody else.
This was what the different coaches of participating teams said during the launching press conference yesterday at the Café Laguna in Ayala.
The league welcomes its 13th season on Aug. 3 at the Cebu Coliseum.
“We really have to find a combination that can match up with both SWU and UV,” said the University of San Carlos head coach and local legend Julian Macoy.
The other coaches and representatives were non-committal about their respective team’s chances for the title in the upcoming collegiate basketball wars and made sure to just concentrate on their team goals rather than think about going toe-to-toe with the league’s two preeminent squads.
“We pretty much have the same lineup from last year,” said Cebu Institute of Technology-University head coach and former pro Gilbert Demape. “We just promise to put up a good fight. They’ve seen us play. They know what to expect from us.”
The University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars, represented by Rev. Fr. Glynn Ortega, OAR, the school’s vice president for Students Welfare and its athletic director, stated they have set the semifinal round as their team’s goal for this season.
The press conference was presided by commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy Jr., who was joined at the podium by Cesafi president, Fr. Manny Uy, S.J., school president of the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu, and Smart Communications officials led by Steve Alcoseba, head of sales and distribution for Visayas and Mindanao.
Macoy was brazen enough to admit that his team is a whole lot better than last year’s squad, during his first season at the helm.
Like UV and SWU, the Warriors will also parade two imports in Barry Amin and Ahmed Salihou making a semifinal a reachable goal.
The Cobras and Lancers downplayed their chances and chose to look at the bigger picture rather than on the fierce and bitter rivalry that has been brewing between the two schools for the better part of the century.
“It’s not only UV, but the entire Cesafi that we’re preparing for,” said said Provincial Board Member Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba, head coach of the Cobras. “It’s going to be an interesting tournament with other schools having their own foreign players.”
Felix Belano, head coach of the Green Lancers, a team itching for vengeance after losing an 18-point lead in the fourth period of Game Five in last year’s finals to these very same Cobras, said the heated rivalry is good for the league.
The much-anticipated match-up between SWU and UV will be on Aug. 17.