WITH the football, softball and baseball tournaments of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) all taking place at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, athletes, school officials and fans of the other universities can’t help but notice the spanking new sports facilities at UP.
It seems that as life passed by quietly during the pandemic, UP put on the finishing touches to a sports complex that yielded an elite FIFA-standard football pitch, a 21,750 square-meter baseball field that also follows international standards, four fast-surface tennis courts and a modern varsity training center post-pandemic.
Still in the works: a refurbished main gym and an Olympic-sized swimming pool in the main College of Human Kinetics (CHK) grounds.
With a stepped-up sports program best personified by the achievements of the UP Fighting Maroons, softball, fencing and the phenomenal support shown by the UP crowd in Maroon competitions, it looks like UP is now, finally, serious about sports.
What a 180-degree turn! Up to the 90’s and early 00’s, sports was not quite the priority in UP. Stories of professors picking on student athletes just because they were student athletes were rife. Lukewarm or disinterested responses from UP students and alumni to support UP athletes was the rule and not the exception. Worse, for a time an attitude that jocks were academically inferior prevailed. No wonder sports achievements were exceptions, not the rule.
Patrick “Pato” Gregorio, sports official for various sports, tells a funny story that shows how lacking in facilities UP athletes were during his time as a junior player for UP Integrated School.
“We had a game at UST [University of Santo Tomas] and were already along España (Street) when our rickety coaster broke down right along the railroad track,” he said. “All of us players got off and pushed the coaster off the tracks…para hindi masagasaan ng tren. We kept pushing all the way to UST, so by the time we got to the gym to play the game, pagod na kami. We lost, of course.”
Former UP President Emil Q. Javier, who was a varsity athlete while still a student at UP Los Baños, revealed that UP athletes during his time didn’t even practice together. There was no serious preparation to be competitive, much less excel.
“I was on a bus from LB on my way to Rizal Memorial [Coliseum] where we had our game. I saw a fellow student on the bus with a sports bag just like me and I asked him if he was also going to Rizal. It turns out he was my teammate. And we just met each other there!” He laughs about it now.
But things are looking up for sports and all student athletes of this university that went 0 of 14 games in basketball several seasons ago.
Last Tuesday, February 28, an Office for Athletics and Sports Development (OASD) was launched to focus on and take care of the needs of student athletes.
It will undertake and support comprehensive sports programs and look after student welfare, discipline, housing, and will assist students through academic and psychosocial support programs.
Not a recent development entirely, it started with an executive order issued in 2015 by then UP president Alfredo Pascual (now Trade and Industry Secretary) to create the office that would undertake and support comprehensive sports programs. Actual groundwork to establish the OASD began in 2022.
“The OASD will emphasize the overall welfare of more than 1,000 UP student-athletes. It is a timely development that coincides with our efforts to enhance the breadth of the university sports facilities,” UP president Angelo Jimenez said.
“Student-athletes bear a double load of academic and varsity responsibilities every day. Therefore they need our care and attention,” UPD Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo said.
As of 2021, the UP varsity program was comprised of more than 1,000 student-athletes and coaches across 29 sports teams and three performing groups, namely the Pep Squad, Filipiniana Dance and Street Dance groups, Nemenzo said.
CHK Dean Francis Diaz will serve concurrently as the interim OASD director while business executive and sports leader Patrick Gregorio will be OASD interim associate director for external affairs and resource generation.