UC’s secondary girls volleyball team during their gold-medal winning match against University of San Carlos (USC) at the University of Southern Philippines-Foundation Inc. (USP-F) gymnasium. | Photo from Sugbuanong Kodaker
CEBU CITY, Philippines—– The University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters’ impressive outing in the recently concluded 30th Cebu City Olympics is one way for its athletes to repay the generosity of the school’s administration, according to its athletic director Jessica Honoridez.
UC dominated the week-long multi-sporting meet by harvesting a total of 96 gold medals, 42 silver medals, and 21 bronzes to rule the secondary division.
On top of that, most of Team Cebu City’s athletes in the secondary division will be comprised of UC’s athletes as they dominated the swimming, taekwondo, athletics, arnis, gymnastics, chess, and other individual competitions of the meet.
“Now that face to face competitions have returned, winning the secondary division of the Cebu City Olympics is our way to give back to the generosity of the UC administration, especially to Atty. (Augustus) Go and Ma’am Candice (Gotianuy) for their unwavering support to UC athletic department way back during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown,” said Honoridez.
“They’re not just supporting the athletes with scholarships, but also they’re supporting Cebu City’s sports because we’re sending a lot of athletes from UC to CVIRAA,” she added.
According to Honoridez, because of the support from the UC administration, they were able to maintain the training and supervision of their athletes despite the lockdowns and the limited movements that were implemented during the pandemic.
“It’s not easy to come up with quality training and composition of athletes because of the pandemic. However, we maintained it because of the support from the administration. That’s why I was confident that we’re going to be the overall champion because of our sports program. For me, I’m very hopeful that the quality of our sports program will continue,” Honoridez said.
Amidst the celebration, Honoridez also felt the pressure on their side since many of UC’s athletes will represent Cebu City in CVIRAA later this month in Carcar City.
“Majority of the athletes in the secondary division are from UC. So, the pressure is on us in UC. Representing Cebu City is a big responsibility, but we will take it one step at a time. That’s why, after Cebu City Olympics, the athletes will focus training for CVIRAA,” Honoridez said.
Unit 9 or the Abellana National School (ANS) finished second in the secondary division medal standings with a 39-39-47 (gold-silver-bronze) tally, followed by Unit 4 with a 20-19-22 haul.
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