Inter-MBA Games and 3 heroines of Everest

Ten years ago, the Inter-MBA (Master of Business Administration) Friendship Games were born. Among its initial members were the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School of Business (ADMUGSB), De La Salle University Graduate School of Business (DLSUGSB) and University of Sto. Tomas (UST). Two years ago, San Beda College’s Graduate School of Business (SBC) became the fifth member of the Inter-MBA Games.

While the Games were meant to provide sports activities to graduate business students as part of the member schools desire to provide well-rounded education to its most important stakeholder, the rivalry among member schools has not failed to approximate the excitement in the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

It would only be natural therefore for teams to be preparing in earnest for the Games which will start on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 8 a.m. at the Enrique Razon Sports Complex at DLSU Taft. Some squads, especially in the basketball competitions, have been playing in various leagues over the last several months to prep themselves up for the Games which will end in mid-April.

Without doubt such preparations, not to mention sacrifice, help in creating a sense of community and teamwork among the students who already have their hands full with work, study and family. With the exception of AIM, the four schools’ programs have been designed for working professionals.

Six titles will be at stake in this year’s edition of the Games which are hosted by DLSUGSB: women’s volleyball; men’s basketball; women’s and men’s badminton; women’s and men’s bowling; mixed women’s and men’s billiards and mixed women’s and men’s chess. Points earned for each sport (with the men’s and women’s output in the mixed sports combined to determine the first placer in that sport) are added up to determine the overall champion.

Over the last several years ADMUGSB, which has probably the biggest graduate student population among Games’ members, has won the overall championship the most number of times with its basketball team successfully defending its title year after year with DLSUGSB and UST alternating as runners up.

Like any other league, the inter-MBA Games have had its share of growing pains especially in the area of player eligibility. After years of almost indiscriminately allowing former UAAP, NCAA, Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and even national players to take part in the league, Games policy makers have seen it fit to limit the participation of such high level or elite or varsity players. Only one high level player can be fielded at any given time in team sports like basketball and volleyball while there is an absolute ban on elite players in individual events like chess and billiards.

The basic rationale behind the caps on the number of varsity and national players (including overseas students) who can be fielded at any given time was to allow wider participation among recreational players, which graduate students basically are.

Advocates of the cap had stated that while these former high level players are bona fide students of their respective schools (and have therefore met the basic qualification), the first among the league’s unspoken hierarchy of principles, friendship and broadest participation, was given more weight.

The logic that was employed was that former varsity or professional players already had their chance and it would be unfair for them to crowd out working professional-students for whom sports is not the main preoccupation. One question raised was would it right to field a retired but healthy 35-year-old Manny Pacquiao in the ring against a 24-year- old part time student and full time professional, assuming boxing was in the Games’ agenda and Pacquiao was a bona fide graduate business student?

All these were sorted however in time for Sunday’s inaugural, the added attraction of which is the appearance of the three Filipino women, Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon and Janet Belarmino, who scaled Mt. Everest on May 16, 2007, as guests of honor.

All three are Philippine Coast Guard officers and have the honor of being the first Southeast Asian women to conquer Mt. Everest (shared by Tibet and Nepal), which stands at 8,850 meters (about 29,035 feet). They are also the first women in the world to traverse Mt. Everest from the North to the South side. Crossing the mountain from Tibet to Nepal has only been done, until the Philippine trio came along, by a handful of mountaineers, all of them men.