WHILE Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) member schools are now allowed to compete as separate teams, organizers of the 2018 Cebu City Olympics said they will be limiting the number of these schools in team sports.
In a press conference yesterday at the Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu City office, division sports coordinator Francis Ramirez said that only the top three Cesafi schools in the team sports will be allowed to compete in the four-day meet that opens on Wednesday at the Cebu City Sports Center.
In recent years, the annual City Olympics, which is the basis for the roster of the Cebu City team that will compete in the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) meet, has been using unitary grouping of schools. Schools were grouped based on their areas. Some Cesafi schools were included in different units.
This year, they changed the system, allowing Cesafi schools to compete as a separate team. They hope that with this move, student athletes from public schools will have a better chance of winning and making the Cebu City team for the CVIRAA.
“This means more exposure for public school students. We hope they step it up in this year’s Cebu City Olympics,” said Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Bianito Dagatan during the press conference.
But the organizing committee of the annual multi-sporting meet decided to limit the number of Cesafi member schools in the team sports. For individual sports, Cesafi member schools are allowed to field as many athletes as they can.
“If we let the 10 Cesafi schools join in team sports, it will look like another Cesafi competition,” said Ramirez.
A total of 24 sporting events, seven of them are team sports, will be featured in the meet. The secondary division will have nine units while the elementary will have eight units, excluding Cesafi member schools.
The CVIRAA will be hosted by Dumaguete City in the last week of February.