With more empty seats than spectators marring every game in this year’s Cesafi basketball tournament, some coaches and former players give their insights on how to improve the league’s crowd attendance.
(CDN FILE PHOTO)
The Cebuano basketball community is a close-knit one. For every question that is raised about the current state of Cebu’s premier inter-school basketball league, the Cesafi, lies answers that former basketball players and observers have gathered in the hopes of bringing back the once-proud league back to its glory years.
Multi-titled head coach Yayoy Alcoseba, mentor of the Southwestern University-Phinma Cobras, said that the league should focus more on proper scheduling to ensure that it gets to put out the best product possible.
“The Cesafi should really do their research and see what kind of schedule works best for the teams. Teams need to prepare for the games and that takes a little bit of time. We can’t have teams playing back to back especially during the semifinal round,” said Alcoseba, one of the south’s brightest basketball minds.
“And it benefits the fans as well. When you space out the games, it gives them time to prepare their respective schedules and give them a better chance of watching the games,” he added.
Rommel Rasmo, head coach of this season’s runners-up, the University of San Carlos, believes that rewarding the top teams’ hard work would be fair for all.
“Though this year’s format obviously benefited my team, I still think the Cesafi should ‘reward’ the top two teams with a twice-to-beat advantage. Not doing so is like disregarding a team’s body of work throughout the season especially during an elims sweep,” Rasmo said.
It was a sentiment that was shared by Edrian Lao, the former hulking big man of UV.
“We need to change the final four format and give protection to the top two teams in the elimination round to show fairness.”
Lao added proper documentation of stats would go a long way to boosting the league’s credibility especially when it comes to giving out awards.
“Cesafi needs to base their awards on statistics. It was very obvious that the best players were not given the right awards.”
Promote
UV assistant coach Van Halen Parmis and current UV Passerelle head coach Jaymar Canoy believe that the league would do well to bring its games to other regions of Cebu.
“Ang dili lang naku makalimtan nga katong time nagduwa ko nya UV ang host ato kay gidala man gud nila outside Cebu City. Naa gud to duwa sa Minglanilla, sa Pardo ug sa asa pa to. Usa to nakadaghan sa tao,” shared Canoy.
“Dapat jud e-promote ang Cesafi sa mga neigboring cities or hatagan og game schedule kay sa Cebu Coliseum lisod najud mutan-aw ang mga tao sa Cebu. Naay Talisay, Minglanilla, Naga, Pasil and other neutral venues na pwede maduwaan,” Parmis suggested.
Edward Pao, the ex-UC forward, and JR Blanes, a former big man of USC, said that the league needs people with marketing savvy and innovation. “Cesafi needs an upgrade from
the inside and out. It definitely needs better marketing and in game experience.”
“The Cesafi organization should do a revamp,” said Blanes.
Paul Joven and Ryan Betia, key cogs of the Warriors back then, said that better engagement between the league, the players and the students would help bring attendance up.
“Kailangan nila iduol ang ilang basketball team or any sports sa ilang students. Dapat interactive. And maybe the teachers also will support the team,” said Betia, now an assistant at Far Eastern University.
“What we did before kay we asked teachers na pwede ba mi maka talk sa ilang class for 10 minutes to invite them to watch our games,” added Joven.
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