PCCL Zonals starts in Ormoc City today

CEBU – The Area 3 Zonal Elimination of the Philippine Collegiate Championship League (PCCL) starts today in Ormoc Superdome.

Colegio de San Juan de Letran, a powerhouse NCAA team from Manila, leads all entries in the tournament that runs until November 12.

The other participants are Cebu’s University of San Jose-Recolotes (USJ-R), first runner-up in the 2008 CESAFI tournament, Bohol Institute of Technology, West Negros College from Bacolod, and Region 8 champion AMA Computer Learning Center of Ormoc City.

The champion and runner-up in this tournament will join16 other collegiate teams in the PCCL finals in Manila slated in the middle of this month.

Ormoc City Councilor Ruben Capahi, the chairman of the committee of sports, said the city is prepared for the staging of the tournament. He further said that the tournament is a very significant development for basketball enthusiasts in the city because the games will be played on “another level,” as some of these visiting players have already showed their talents in the PBL.

Al Aberca, the city sports coordinator, echoed the city’s preparedness and added that the superdome is ready for the tournament as well as the officials that will handle the games.

As of this writing, however, only Letran and AMA Computer Learning College had arrived in Ormoc. Teams from Bacolod, Bohol and Cebu are all stranded in Cebu because of the weather.

The FREEMAN learned from Ormoc City officials that if the other teams won’t make it to Ormoc, the opening of the tournament will push through with a game between Letran and AMA Computer Learning Center.

Courtside seats cost P30, lower box is P20 and general admission is only P10 for the first two days of the tournament. The prices of tickets, however, will increase to P50, P30 and P10, respectively on the third and fourth days of the tournament.

Patron tickets with special seats are available for P500. —Robert C. Dejon (THE FREEMAN)