WILL the long wait be worth it for the UAAP?
This year’s season president Emmanuel Calanog of host La Salle hopes so.
“We went through a very difficult two years. We were hoping to bring back the UAAP as early as season 83,” Calanog said last Saturday on Radyo5 92.3 News FM’s Power and Play program hosted by former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala.
“But the situation could not allow us to come back so our Board of Trustees, the presidents of the universities decided to cancel season 83,” he added.
The league is set to kick off its new season on March 26 with the centerpiece events of men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and cheerdance leading the calendar.
Also included are men’s and women’s 3×3 basketball, men’s beach volleyball, poomsae, and men’s and women’s chess.
The Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Smart Araneta Coliseum, The Arena in San Juan, and the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig are being considered as venues for the cage wars.
Calanog said the league has been working hard after the 83rd season was called off.
“Starting that time when it was canceled, we were already preparing for season 84, preparing all the protocols. We were coordinating with government agencies particularly the Commission on Higher Education which oversees all the universities regarding our protocols,” Calanog said.
“We were all given authority to return to training last December, so our basketball and volleyball teams are now back in training. So, the UAAP is preparing for the opening hopefully by late March.”
The cancellation of the 83rd season in December 2020 marked the first time the UAAP called off a season since World War II from 1941 to 1946.
The UAAP also canceled the remainder of the 82nd season in April 2020 at the start of the government-imposed lockdown to stem the spread of the killer pulmonary virus and wanted to have a full calendar in the 83rd season.
