Visayas inter-school league mulled

The framework has already been laid out for the creation of a region-wide athletic league that will be known as the Visayas Amateur Athletic Association (VAAA).

Conceptualized by Basketball Association of the Philippines national chairman Michel J. Lhuillier and BAP vice president for the Visayas Raul "Yayoy" Alcoseba, VAAA envisions to gather the best student-athletes in the entire Visayas region and expose them to a bigger and more prominent league.

This early, VAAA already drew positive response from representatives of the invited schools during an organizational meeting presided over by Lhuillier and Alcoseba yesterday at Chez Lucie restobar in Brgy. Banilad, this city.

Among those present were Salazar College of Science and Institute of Technology (SCSIT) president Engr. Doroteo M. Salazar, University of San Carlos (USC) vice president for finance and athletic director Fr. Vic Uy, SVD, University of San Jose-Recoletos assistant athletic moderator Dioscoro Himotas, Southwestern University (SWU) athletic director Merlie Concepion, and Silliman University athletic director Meriam M. Ramacho.

The group will again meet on Tuesday to finalize everything.

"We're here to promote sports. We will work together as a team. I hope after this (meeting), better things will come," said Lhuillier, who is also the Cebu City Sports Commission chairman.

Alcoseba said the inaugural season of VAAA will take off with the basketball event sometime in November right after the 6th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc (CESAFI) season. He added the league aims to enlist six to eight schools for its maiden voyage in school year 2006-2007.

Other schools invited to take part in the VAAA inaugurals are Foundation University (FU) of Dumaguete City and Holy Name University (HNU) and Bohol Institute of Technology (BIT) of Tagbilaran City.

Alcoseba added though that other interested teams are welcome to join the league.

"The idea of putting up this league is to expose our collegiate players in the Visayas to a bigger tournament," said Alcoseba.

VAAA also aims to be the premiere college sports organization outside of Metro Manila by producing excellent athletes who may be later be tapped to represent the Philippines in international competitions.

VAAA will have basketball as its initial offering, but will soon branch out and include other events such as volleyball, football, aquatics, dancesport, racket sports and martial arts.

VAAA wants to awaken the school spirit of the students and its alumni, thus, the home-and-away format will be followed in the conduct of the tournament.

A double round robin format will be used in the elimination phase, with the top four teams advancing into the semifinal round where the No.1 and No.2 enjoy twice-to-beat incentives over the lower-ranked squads.

The winners will then set up a best-of-three finals series for the historic VAAA championship.

With M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala as the league's chief corporate backer,the organizers will shoulder the transportation expenses as well as provide meal allowance amounting to P4,000 per team during out-of-town games.

The host school, on the other hand, will take charge of the accommodation of the visiting team aside from being required to procure a suitable playing venue and other concerns related to hosting chores.