UAAP Season 66 off the wraps

The opening rites is set at 1 p.m. with host Ateneo lining up a very unique presentation in that the eight competing schools will be represented not only by their basketball teams but the team captains of the 13 other sports disciplines in the UAAP calendar.

It will be the first time that athletes from track and field, volleyball, badminton, baseball, fencing, softball, soccer, lawn tennis, table tennis, swimming, taekwondo, chess and judo will join the opening parade as the league continues to try hard and give all the events equal exposure.

The schools’ lovely muses, of course, and their legions of fans will be around to add to all the glitter surrounding the opening day that will feature senior basketball matches between UP and NU at 2 p.m. and La Salle vs Santo Tomas at 4 p.m.

Although the four debuting teams aren’t among those tipped to win the title this year based on the pre-season forecast, the excitement of college basketball will defintely fill the air just the same. Defending champion Ateneo and the rest of the favorites – Far Eastern U, University of the East and Adamson – will see action tomorrow also at the Big Dome.

But as the competition begins, the UAAP board led by Jun Jun Capistrano of Ateneo will continue to face questions on the issues surrounding the league’s planned drug-testing program and the possibility of losing its top players to the PBA Invitational Cup later this month, being members of the RP Youth team.

Capistrano said recently they plan to put the players in all 14 events under random drug testing throughout the season with Dr. Raul Canlas, a noted sports medicine expert, on top of the program to be patterned, at least, after that of the PBA.

Capistrano, however, has yet to announce how the league would implement the testing which has to be full-proof, humane and confidential. Capistrano was supposed to meet with Dr. Canlas last Monday to tackle the issue.

Capistrano said during yesterday’s SCOOP sa Kamayan Forum that the UAAP has yet to decide whether or not it would allow its top players to see action in the PBA event where the RP Youth team is a guest competitor along with three foreign squads.

The PBA event is scheduled to last until August and will definitely go against the UAAP schedule that runs until October.

A total of 10 UAAP players and two from the NCAA make up the core of the RP Youth squad scheduled to compete in the ABC Championship in China this September and the SEA Games in Vietnam this December.

"We have not discussed the matter yet in any of our meetings but as far as I know, it’s only the ABC and the SEA Games we have to honor," said Capistrano. explaining that UAAP players seeing action in the PBA is not part of any previous agreement.

The UAAP players in the national team are James Yap, Paul Artadi, JR Estrada and Rommel Canaleta of UE, Rich Alvarez and Wesley Gonzales of Ateneo, Dondon Villamin and Jemal Vizcarra of Santo Tomas, and Gerard Jones and Mark Isip of FEU. Coming from the NCAA are St. Benilde players Al Magpayo and Ronald Capati.

Should the UAAP bar these players from seeing action in the PBA, the RP team will be represented by its second team to be reinforced by a couple of PBL players.

But then, that would be against the purpose of giving the nationals the needed exposure in the PBA.