A bit of 2018 Partner’s Cup action between the juniors teams of UC and UV. CDN file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The double round-robin format of the Cesafi’s preseason tournament called the Partner’s Cup 2019 drew a mixed bag of reactions from the coaches of the participating schools, with some asserting that the competition will run for far too long.
According to the tournament schedule, the Partner’s Cup is slated to kick off with a four-game slate on June 8 with the last game of the first round set for July 6.
This means that the double round-robin eliminations will wrap up in August. The brand new season of the Cesafi is set to open on August 31, 2019.
Southwestern University-Phinma Cobras head coach Mike Reyes said that he’s fine with the format but argued that it should have been started much sooner.
“Okay lang sana two rounds pero it’s a little late na. We should have started earlier,” said Reyes.
Read more: 2019 Cesafi Partner’s Cup to start June 1
Gary Cortes of the three-time defending champions University of the Visayas and Leode Garcia of the University of San Jose-Recoletos, have both said that this new wrinkle in the Partner’s Cup would adversely affect their preparations for the regular season.
“I can’t do anything if that’s the format that they are using, but it will surely affect all the teams’ out-of-town game commitments,” said Cortes. “And besides, teams are supposed to focus more on training.”
Garcia added that this would definitely impact their strength and conditioning program that they were implementing.
“This will disrupt our conditioning program. We are supposed to get started on our weight training in preparation for the Cesafi’s regular season,” Garcia said.
“It’s not good since it will take too long. It should be a short tournament since it is only the preseason,” he said.
Cortes agreed with Garcia’s sentiments as he favored a single round robin format instead.
“A single round robin is enough to determine which players we can use to plug into the slots that were vacated by the players we no longer have,” Cortes said.
One coach who does not have an issue with the Partner’s Cup format is multi-titled coach, Yayoy Alcoseba of the University of Cebu, who said, “It’s okay. It’s the same format we use in the Cesafi anyway.”/dbs