HERE COMES USJ-R: Bolstered by former Don Bosco booters, Baby Jaguars looking like champs

Things are looking bright for the University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) Baby Jaguars football team in the secondary football competition of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (Cesafi).

A perennial cellar-dweller in the league, the Baby Jaguars showed they are a force to be reckoned with this season after they edged defending champions Don Bosco Technical College (DBTC) Greywolves, 1-0, yesterday afternoon at the Cebu City Sports Center.

Ironically, it was former players of Don Bosco who are now leading the USJ-R juniors football team.

According to USJ-R head coach Rommel Ramirez, the USJ-R team is now manned by 13 former Bosconians who decided to transfer after the school once again gave out athletic scholarships to secondary students.

“They also belong to one team there (in DBTC). So they are already familiar with how their opponents play because they used to belong to [that] school,” said Ramirez, also a former coach of Don Bosco.

In the past years, USJ-R didn’t give athletic scholarships in the high school department, thus, making it difficult for the team to come up with quality players.

Ramirez is optimistic with the team he has now as this is the same team that handed DBTC the Palarong Pambansa elementary title in 2014 as well as the Milo national championship.

Ramirez said he expects this team to fare better in the Cesafi competition. For the last six years or so, Ramirez said that USJ-R has always been the first team to get eliminated and gets stuck at the cellar.

“We may no longer be the bottom dwellers this season because we have not lost a game so far,” said Ramirez.

The Baby Jaguars so far has a 1-0-1 (win-loss-draw) record in the tournament. They opened their Cesafi campaign last Saturday with a 1-all draw against the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF).

DBTC currently shares the fifth spot with guest school participant Sisters of Mary School (SMS) Boystown Aloysians as both lost their opening games.

The Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles tightened its grip of the top spot by spoiling the debut of the SMS Boystown Aloysians, 3-0, while the University of San Carlos-Basic Education shrugged off its opening game loss with a 2-1 victory against USPF.