senator pia cayetano on new UAAP rule on residency : “unconstitutional; unjust and cruel to athletes”

we are posting in full statement by senator pia cayetano:

Dear UAAP Board,

Many athletes, former athletes, and parents of athletes are in an uproar over the recent decision of the UAAP board to require graduating high school students to sit out 2 years if they come from a UAAP high school and go to a different UAAP college.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the 2-year residency requirement for other than to curtail the freedom of the young athlete to choose the college where he wants to study and play?

In the USA, transferring college athletes have a 1-year residency rest before they can play for their new school – only 1 year, and it doesn’t apply to high school students who choose to go to a different college. The 1-year residency rule requires an athlete to sit out one year of competition because transferring student-athletes suffer academically over time. The year-in-residence is meant to help the athlete acclimatize to the new school and adjust academics-wise. [1] So what’s your 2-year rule for?

A student-athlete’s choice of university is influenced not only by athletics, but also by academics, campus life, and personal situation [2], and the 2-year residency encumbers their freedom of choice.

In my humble opinion as an athlete, a parent of both a college and a high school athlete, and a lawyer, the 2-year residency that is currently applied to transferring college students, as well as any residency rule for high school students, deny athletes of their rights to develop their full potential. It goes against the Constitutional mandate to promote sports especially among our youth, and is an unreasonable limit on an athlete’s freedom of choice as well as academic freedom to choose which college to enter into.

Section 19, Article 14, of the 1987 Constitution states that:

“(1) The State shall promote physical education and encourage sports programs, league competitions, and amateur sports, including training for international competitions, to foster self-discipline, teamwork, and excellence for the development of a healthy and alert citizenry.”

Will the new rule help achieve this?

To excel in sports, one needs to be in constant training of both the body and the mind. Do you know what it’s like for an athlete to sit out two seasons? Athletes thrive on competition. That’s what gets us going. That’s what all the hard training is about. Its what makes it all worth while. To make an athlete sit out two seasons? That just kills the dream. Para sa isang atleta, para mo na ring sinabi na wag ka na lang maglaro. Is this what you want to achieve? Seriously?

I am against any kind of residency rule for graduating high school students. For transferring college students, the 1 year residency rule will suffice. Anything more than that is injustice to an athlete.

I will end this letter by citing a provision in our Bill of Rights against cruel and unjust punishment. For an athlete, this 2 year residency rule is cruel and unjust punishment!

source : http://www.mydailyrace.com/?p=2566

 

read : new UAAP rule on residency is unjust, unfair and harms high school athletes

new UAAP rule on residency is unjust, unfair and harms high school athletes

social media was ablaze in the last few days on this new rule of the UAAP on residency:

HIGH school players who will transfer to another UAAP school in college will now have to wait for two years before becoming eligible to play in the league.

The UAAP board on Tuesday approved the recommendation of its amendments committee to increase the residency requirements for transferring high school players from one year to two years.

The new rule, which got the vote of the board during its regular monthly, meeting will take effect immediately and will cover the current batch of graduating high school players in the UAAP.

source : http://www.spin.ph/sports/basketball/news/blow-to-pingoy-astransferees-required-to-undergo-two-year-residency-under-new-uaap-rule

apparently this rule was invented as a reaction to the recruitment war between the Ateneo and FEU on a star high school player of FEU, a two-time MVP in the high school league.

( read here :   http://www.spin.ph/sports/basketball/news/blow-to-pingoy-astransferees-required-to-undergo-two-year-residency-under-new-uaap-rule and here http://www.spin.ph/sports/basketball/news/new-residency-rule-wont-stop-pingoys-switch-to-ateneo-insists-dad)

we think the new rule is all wrong :

• this new rule benefits only the UAAP schools, not anyone else, not the high school athletes and not the league. and the benefit to the schools is just temporary, all it does is delay the playing time and does not totally protect the schools from losing their top high school players to other schools. the obvious intent of the new rule is to prevent or strongly discourage high school athletes from moving to another school for college.  it’s a selfish, misguided rule just for the benefit of the schools.
• it does the most harm to the high school athletes as they are unjustly deprived of playing the sport they love and have labored for for another year. the one year residency to begin with is wrong and extending it for another year makes it doubly wrong.  these high school athletes have been competing, honing and practicing their skills throughout high school and to many it started during their grade school days, this rule puts a two-year stop to that regimen, to that success formula. any athlete know that sustained and continued playing time, specially in competition play and training are key to sports greatness. all athletes know – you stop competitive playing and you don’t improve and to some lose some of your skills while others who continue progress more.
• putting in place rules that have the effect of barring or impeding a high school student from pursuing his college education in the school of his choice is wrong and immoral, specially if this is being done just to protect the school’s college sports program.  the fact is schools have differing quality of education, the same as having differing quality of sports programs. high school students, including athletes choose the best that they can have (and afford). putting in barriers for the students to choose the best or better education and sports program is wrong for the schools to do so.
• it does not make sense that the league is stopping high school students from pursuing greater things for their education and the sport they love.
• the new rule does not make the UAAP league any better nor does it do anything positive to sports, all it does is give the schools some kind of fake psychological benefit.
• the new rule is definitely discriminatory against universities who do not have coed high schools like la salle and ateneo. this will mean their women recruits for the women sports in the UAAP sill need to wait it out for two years. not having female students in their high schools automatically mean they will need to recruit from high school girls.

there is something very wrong with UAAP schools looking for ways to improve their chances at winning games in the league not by improving their sports programs but by imposing rules that discriminate other schools and do nothing but harm high school athletes.

winning UAAP games is best done by winning in the courts during games, not in meeting rooms by creating unfair, discriminatory, harmful and selfish self serving rules. this new UAAP rule does not help the league in any way, all it does is hurt the future and dreams of high school athletes.

read more here : Twitter ablaze as #NewUAAPRule stuns UAAP fans http://www.rappler.com/sports/23150-twitter-ablaze-as-newuaaprule-stuns-uaap-fans

UAAP 74 basketball finals game 2 – ateneo vs feu and the silver bullet for the win

the epic finals game in the UAAP 74 basketball competition is set tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum at 3 pm.

it is epic for feu as this is a come from behind championship campaign for them, from a third place finish during the qualifying rounds, and overcoming the twice to beet challenge in the semi finals, needing to beat adamson twice before getting into the finals. feu already lost game 1 and in humiliating fashion with a high double digit loss to ateneo, the game was mostly dominated by ateneo. losing the game tomorrow means the championship goes to ateneo.

it is also epic for ateneo. not only are they the defending champion, they are 3peat champions and winning tomorrow will mean a historic back to back championship 4 times over. ateneo will only be the 3rd team to accomplish this feat.

what is ateneo supposed to do to win tomorrow?

• not much, they just need to play the kind of game they have been playing in all their games during the season – killer defense, a fast game, score on the errors and rebounds and play as a team.
• ateneo has been one of the most consistent teams during this season, always delivering the same way in every game.
• ateneo has at least 10 good players  – the starting 5 are all killers and the next 5 are equally competent.
• slaughter, ravena and salva are the top 3 players. if any two of them do well tomorrow, they have the championship. although of the three, salva is the most consistent, scoring double digits in almost all the games.
• any of the three having a gang bang game and that is it for FEU. all three players have done that before and to devastating effect on their opponent.
• monfort and long are also always there to boost the team. monfort has sparked scoring sprees while long has been the best defensive player of ateneo.
• and then ateneo’s bench. they are very, very reliable. they can take over the first five if they are having problems and has enough skill not only to maintain the lead but to increase and bring it back to the lead.
• final word – ateneo will attempt to erect a significant lead during the first quarter of  the game. they will start the game very aggressively. if feu collapses from this first quarter onslaught, it will be all over for feu’s title quest.

feu will not go that easy, or at least that is the expectation.

• they need to play as a team. they have failed to do this in many of their games.
• their top 3 players need to play as a crew, look for each other and give each other the ball for easy points. they have not done this much. feu’s top 3 players tend to play on their own.
• feu should stop using the 3 point shot as their winning formula. the chances of success are much lower on these types of shots. they need to bring the ball closer to take the 2 point shot instead. they don’t have much of a down to the ring game, but close jump shots are much better than 3 pointers.
• rr garcia need to find his groove back. he has been inconsistent in many of the game.
• above all, feu need to be tough and full of confidence. i think this factor will be the biggest challenged for feu. they lost big during the first game versus ateneo, it will not be easy to shake that off from their minds. it will be the mental conditioning that will make them win the game.

2010 UAAP Ateneo-FEU basketball championship – competent coaching made the difference

like everyone else, we were shocked at the outcome of the first game of the 2010 UAAP basketball championship between Ateneo and FEU over the weekend. we were more shocked than the FEU players themselves. we thought it would be tough and close, it was easy and wide.

we have to agree with the FEU sports official who described their teams loss like an animal  facing the headlights of  a car on a highway at night. – the FEU players froze, with eyes wide and stood there and waited for  the car to run them over.

we think it is the coaching that made the difference in that game and leading to the finals. norman black , the ateneo coach, is once again making the difference for ateneo.  the ateneo squad in the past few years and most specially this year usually starts cold and gets hotter as the season nears the end.

the ateneo team specially this one kept on improving game after game. the ateneo team had the same players now as the start of the season, the difference lie in the adjustments coach norman black makes game to game. it is these adjustments in play and strategy that allowed the ateneo team to win over FEU which had previously beat ateneo twice during regular play.

listen to the ateneo players after their games – all of them talk about practicing hard before the game. that tells us they do change their plans when they go into a new game and they practice it well.

ateneo’s team this season do not have the stars it used to have in the last two years.  they seem to be all even across the players. look at the games they have played and you will see that different players star in different games. that tells you this team operates on specific strategy of play rather than being central to one or  two players.  different players come out as the star of the game as the plays work and evolve during the game.

FEU on the other hand must have set their plays on their two stars – romeo and garcia as they have done in most previous games.  unfortunately, their coach did not adjust their plays and strategies when it did not work. either the coach failed to adjust the play or if the coach did, the players did not respond to the instructi0ns.

what is going to happen on game 2? ateneo for sure will adapt most of the game plan they had in game 1 and probably come up with a few new plays to anticipate adjustments that FEU will make on thursday.

we think its important for ateneo to employ the same strategy of piling up the points on fastbreaks very early on. it is important not just on the point building standpoint but more importantly on the psychology side.

FEU players seem to be psychologically vulnerable. they fold when ravaged in the mind and that is what ateneo’s play will be on game 2.