18-event PRISAA to unwrap in Tagum

MANILA, Philippines - Eighteen events will be disputed by hundreds of upcoming athletes in the 2014 PRISAA (Private Schools Athletic Association) National Games on April 6-12 in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.

“Through the coming games, we hope to develop young athletes who could represent our country in international competitions,” said PRISAA national chairman Dr. Emmanuel Angeles.

According to Angeles, the events on tap are:

Team sports – Baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, football, sepak takraw, softball and volleyball.

Individual sports – Athletics, badminton, boxing, chess, dance sports, judo, karate-do, lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis and taekwondo.

There will also be academic competitions in debate, declamation and oration and cultural competitions in vocal solo, vocal duet and pageant night and Mutya ng PRISAA.

Eliminations are going on to determine the participants in the National Games.

These are the provincial and city collegiate games followed by the regional collegiate games.

“Competition is a great venue to develop self-discipline, responsibility and integrity among our young people. The experiential learning which the youth undergo certainly contributes to the total development of their personhood,” Angeles explained as one of the reasons behind the annual staging of the PRISAA National Games.

Angeles also stressed that the PRISAA “is committed to harness the potentials of student-athletes, trainers, coaches, sports directors, physical education instructors, technical officials and other stakeholders of member-schools for excellence in sports.”

The PRISAA was organized on Feb. 17, 1953 through the encouragement of then Bureau of Private Schools director Dr. Manuel Carreon.

Starting in 1956, the annual PRISAA meets were held in different cities and provinces throughout the country. The annual meet was stopped after the 1972 competition at the Paglaum Complex in Bacolod City to experiment on the integration of sports competition for public and private schools including the out-of-school youth.

On July 2, 1990, sports leaders from 14 regions decided to revive the PRISAA with the support of the first Philippine Sports Commission chairman Cecilio Hechanova.

After Angeles was elected national president, the PRISAA meet was held again in August and September, 1990.

Since then, the PRISAA meet became a regular part of the country’s sports activities, except for a few years of interruption in 1993-1996 when it was integrated with the Palarong Pambansa.