Women’s futsal is making its inaugural appearance in the Cesafi starting this year.
After hitting a snag last year, the Cebu Schools Athletics Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) will finally introduce women’s futsal as a demomonstration sport for its upcoming season which will open on August 5.
Dr. Danny Villadolid, the league’s deputy director for other events, told Cebu Daily News that they were supposed to include women’s futsal last year but it did not materialize as schools failed to form a squad after being given a short notice.
“This year, in our strategic planning, we already told the althletic directors of the different schools to prepare a team for futsal,” Villadolid said. “Other schools would like to put up futsal teams since there are only a number of players needed to play the sport.”
Despite of it being a demo sport in the incoming season, the winners of the competition will also be given medals but these will not be counted in their school’s overall medal tally.
Among those who have confirmed their entry are the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu, the University of San Jose-Recoletos and the University of San Carlos.
Villadolid shared that the chances of futsal becoming a regular sport in the Cesafi league is sky high since the sport is already being implented in the Basic K-to-12 education program.
“There’s a big chance that it will be a regular sport. The result this year will be the basis of what we are going to do next year. Futsal is also regular in
basic education so we want to give our senior high players a chance to play once they enter college,” he said.
Villadolid added that the deadline for the checklist for women’s futsal and other events is on July 29.