Guidelines for college sports reboot forwarded

After the pros, college athletes will now be subjected to a set of clear-cut ground rules to resume training.

Commission on Higher Education Chair Prospero de Vera III announced on Monday, October 26, 2020, that the guidelines on the resumption of collegiate athletic training have been completed and would be forwarded to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) for approval.

“What we have is the result of a very exhaustive process,’’ De Vera said during the digital presser on the presentation of the guidelines before the agency for tertiary education submits them to the IATF this week.

“Unless there are some very serious issues with the IATF regarding the details of the guidelines, then I don’t see any obstacle in having it noted by the IATF, so this can now be issued formally, immediately afterward,’’ De Vera said.

Based on the guidelines, student-athletes 18 years old and above can engage in training as long as they follow strict safety and health government protocols under the supervision of their universities and colleges.

“We are opening it up to those universities and associations of universities in sports to start training their athletes,’’ said De Vera, who thanked Philippine Sports Commission Chair William Ramirez and Games and Amusements Board Chair Abraham Mitra for immediately extending help in drawing up the guidelines.

“Now, if we do a good job in implementing it with all the health protocols, then the next logical step will be to start thinking about opening sports competitions,’’ he said.

UP College of Human Kinetics dean Francis Diaz, who formed part of the technical working group along with PSC national training director Marc Velasco, gave a rundown of the implementing guidelines, among them the prohibition on body contact drills. 

INQ