Ultimate Collegiate League 2019
I’ve been to
Dumaguete for so many times now for the past 5 years. This is the third time
this year and still, the city never ceases to amaze me.
It’s the culture. The lifestyle. Definitely
the food. The gentle people of the city of Puto and Sylvanas. Mostly everything
that this city has to offer is golden in my opinion. But of course, the one thing that makes me wake up in the middle of the night to get myself ready for
coffee and shower to catch a first boat trip to Bacolod, to grab a couple of
chicken siopao to go for stomach defense on a six-hour bus ride to Dumzville,
is no other than Ultimate.
Ultimate in
Dumaguete is without a doubt one of the best in the country. Names like Tajji,
Dada, and Isoy to name a few legends in the city, Teams like Extreme Dumaguete
and Lupad DGTE who shocked the Asian Beach Ultimate Community with their
impressive performance in Boracay Open. And of course let’s add a few names
like Jazper, Dongie, Kboy, MiMi, Jee and Ongis who made our country proud,
winning gold in the recently concluded Asia Oceanic Beach Ultimate
Championships in Shirahama, Japan. Dumaguete is stacked with Ultimate
greatness.
But what makes this
city stand out more is the people behind all these successes. The thinkers. The
brains of all the beautiful things that are happening in the ultimate community
in Dumaguete. They are the people behind the Negros Flying Disc Association. Seems
like everything is always in order. Everything is well thought of. It is
impressive.
No wonder this year’s Ultimate Collegiate League
is a hit.
This is my very first collegiate league, and I
gotta say, I was very impressed by the things that I’ve seen all weekend long.
There were players in the high school division that I thought their skills and
talents are far more advanced than their years. And what can I tell you about
the college division, you ask? It’s like watching Ultimate Shindig all over
again with a ton of high flyers grabbing white plastic discs in the air. I just
can't stop shooting because I was worried that I might miss something (Yes, of
course, I did!).
Teams like Silliman
University (SU) of Dumaguete, University of St. La Salle Bacolod, Mindanao
State University-Iligan Institute Of Technology (MSU-IIT), Xavier University of
CDO, the University of San Carlos from Cebu and Negros Oriental State University
(NORSU) graced the fields of the legendary Perdices sports complex. There were
a lot of very familiar faces in the team rosters and it was definitely a treat
seeing them dominate the weekend for the pride of their Universities.
But what really impressed me the most was the
high school division. Quite a cliche already to use this statement but I’m
gonna use it anyway; The future of Ultimate in our country is bright, ladies
and gentlemen! I told you it sounds so old now! But there’s nothing else to
describe it. Between what I’ve seen in Manila and here in the Visayas and
Mindanao area, It is quite clear that the future of the sport is very
promising.
Let’s take a moment and talk about a high
school team that really caught my attention the whole weekend. The Falcons of
Holy Name University. Dominating a team from Saint Francis College with Coreen
Villanueva, Shayne Yray and Rhoderic “Bao Gamay” Del Rosario in the line up
during the finals to win their second consecutive UCL trophy was an impressive
achievement. Yes they have some of the best young players from Bohol like the
Maghuyop sisters, Belle and Gwen, Alex Findlay, Harvey Madaje and Russell
Sales, but it wasn't just these five players that make this young team great,
it was the whole team who worked together as one. I’m not sure if he was the
captain or not, but obviously, Russell Sales did a great job in putting his
squad in check all the time. The team is a dominant force. I just hope that
this success will inspire them to continue to be an example to the younger
generations of the sport and to always keep their feet on the ground.
The college division was on a different level,
though the intensity was pretty much the same with the high school division,
the college teams had more finesse, cleaner cuts, the plays were more
organized. When you are playing for your university, it is also like playing
for your country, the pride of calling your school as the best Ultimate
University in the region is a big deal for these players. So you can definitely
see the frustration when they lose a game or you can feel their excitement when
they are up by a point or two when there’s no time remaining.
The final four teams
who battled it out at The Silliman Ballfield that Sunday afternoon showed
everyone how to play with a lot of heart for their colleges. The University of
St. La Salle Stingers with Carl Jeremy Nayon and that kid named Max controlling
the pace, I thought they had a pretty big chance of scoring an upset against
NORSU in the semis, but the Stingers settled for third place after winning
against CDO’s Xavier University Crusaders (my personal dark horse in winning
the tournament).
The finals between
NORSU and Iligan’s MSU-IIT was a battle of defensive prowess as both teams
displayed some ridiculous defensive stops all game long. It was pretty obvious
that MSU has a playing style of beating the opposing team with speed, while
NORSU, on the other hand, used a lot of short passes to break the cup defense of
MSU. Both teams displayed two different kinds of playing style which was
actually a perfect way to show everyone that any kind of play can absolutely
win games. Though MSU-IIT almost had the chance of bringing home the UCL title
to Mindanao, NORSU decided to keep the title in the Visayas for another year.
The Negros Oriental State University is your 2019 Ultimate Collegiate League
College Division Champions.
It was definitely an experience to witness
these players fighting for their Colleges and Universities. Winning a
championship with your club team is something. But winning a trophy for your
school is a moment in your Student-Athlete life that you can brag about once
you graduated from your beloved Alma Mater.
Kudos and big
congratulations to NFDA, especially to Rodney Teves who worked all day and
night to make this one a very successful Collegiate event!
Now I wonder, when
are we going to see Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao colleges and universities going
at it in one Ultimate Collegiate event?
We have to make this happen, yes?
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