Triple walkout mars CESAFI volleyball

CEBU, Philippines - In a brazen act that will surely deliver a major blackeye to the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. organization, the men's volleyball teams of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation, (USPF), University of the Visayas (UV) and the University of San Carlos staged a daring triple walkout in yesterday's CESAFI volleyball semifinals at the USC-Main gym.

The actuations of the three highly-respected institutions were in support of the protest they filed to CESAFI commissioner Felix O. Tiukinhoy, Jr. against Jade Dionson of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), which they deemed ineligible to see action in the tournament.

USJ-R of Cebu Sports Hall of Famer coach Grace Antigua was supposed to play against USPF yesterday afternoon but after warming up, USPF coach Cecil Jotojot and the rest of his crew packed their things up and proceeded to the exit door to the Josenians' surprise.

Moments later, USC of coach Roderick Arenasa and UV of coach Jonathan Aves followed suit in sympathy of USPF because they too were involved in lodging the protest.

“During the screening, this player (Jade Dionson) was already disqualified but to our surprise, there was an appeal (from USJ-R) that was approved. So we filed a protest to Mr. Tiukinhoy but was turned down because according to him we did not go through the proper procedure," said a visibly disgruntled Jotojot.

Although he was already dropped from the USJ-R roster during the screening, Dionson still formed part of the Spiking Jaguars because Tiukinhoy and technical committee chief Dr. Danilo G. Villadolid signed Antigua's letter of request allowing Dionson to play for the team.

Dionson previously studied at USPF and was an active member of the school's varsity team under Jotojot but stopped schooling for two years to work. He decided to study again but enrolled at USJ-R this time.

For the concerned coaches, Dionson is not qualified to suit up for USJ-R because the CESAFI amended rules on transferees stipulate that a player needs a one-year residency before he can join his new team.

"I already talked to Mr. Jun Jereza, our vice president for administration, regarding the interpretation of the rule. This thing shouldn't be complicated because the rule clearly states that if you’re a transferee, you need to have a one-year residency. We're already in the crossover semifinals and the matter has not yet been resolved so we better do that (walkout). We are willing to face the consequence of our actions because what Tiukinhoy did to us wasn't fair," Jotojot added.

But Tiukinhoy viewed the issue on a different perspective saying that the said rule only applies to active players who decided to transfer to another member school. He insisted that it could not be applied to players who had stopped schooling for two years as in the case of Dionson.

Tiukinhoy vowed to deal the walkout issue with iron hands and that he won 't hesitate to crack the whip on erring parties.

“We are not in a barrio-fiesta competition, this is a formal scholastic sporting activity and why should they do that? They did not think ahead of what they’re doing. They must appeal now about walking out during the game since it is in the CESAFI rules that they will be banned for life in all CESAFI tournaments,” said Tiukinhoy.

Tiukinhoy is set to meet tournament manager Ryan Aznar of Southwestern University (SWU) and Villadolid to sort things out today at undisclosed venue.

In the women's division, defending champions USPF and SWU thrashed separate opponents to set up a dream championship showdown next week.

USPF of coach Jordan Paca pummeled USJ-R in straight sets, 25-14, 25-23, 25-22, while the Joerem Yu-mentored SWU went through a three-set thriller before trouncing the University of San Carlos, 25-23, 25-21, 26-24 to march into the final round for the first time. – THE FREEMAN