THE National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) kicks off its 96th season on Sunday on a virtual platform—no thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic that refuses to go away.
Forced to improvise as protocols remain in place because of the prevailing general community quarantine, the league opens with a made-for-TV ceremony rallying the theme “Rise Up Stronger: The Road to NCAA Season 96” over broadcast partner GMA.
Khalil Ramos, Gabbi Garcia, Sophia Senoron and Martin Javier will host the ceremony from the GMA studios in Quezon City.
Next week, virtual competitions in taekwondo’s poomsae and speed kicking will be rolled out. Basketball and volleyball, the biggest draw in collegiate sports, are not on the program.
NCAA Season 96 Management Committee Chairman Father Vic Calvo, OP, of host Letran thanked GMA-7 for helping the country’s oldest collegiate sports league to strive during the “new normal.”
“We’re really squeezing in what is available under the new normal, but this is really a different season and going online is the safest,” Calvo told an online media conference on Friday. “Let’s all just wait.”
Calvo said contact sports aren’t seen in the radar, although the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management Infectious Diseases already allows 30 percent operations for gyms, racket sports courts and studios in Greater Manila on Friday.
“I don’t think contact sports will be available for us this season,” Calvo said. “But with this development, I think we can hold skills challenges in basketball and volleyball, online competition in chess and taekwondo.”
Management committee members Atty. Jonas Florentino Cabochan of San Beda, Francisco Gusi Jr. of University of Perpetual Help, Hercules Callanta of Lyceum of the Philippines University, Peter Cayco of Arellano University, Paul Supan of Jose Rizal University, Dax Castellano of St. Benilde, Fr. Glynn Ortega, Melchor Divina of Mapua and Estefanio Boquiron, Jr. of Emilio Aguinaldo College also attended the virtual news conference.
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