New body to take the lead in UP varsity program

The University of the Philippines (UP) has just launched its fortified varsity program aimed at institutionalizing the support it has gotten over the years from its alumni, which has resulted in a string of recent victories, including the coveted collegiate basketball crown.

Riding on this community support, UP unveiled on Tuesday the Office for Athletics and Sports Development (OASD) to oversee the welfare of the state university’s more than 1,000 student-athletes.

It took decades for UP to clinch a second University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men's basketball crown in 2022, but the road to that second championship was not paved in gold. Horror stories of what the athletes had to go through abound, such that by the mid-2010s the UP community saw it fit to help in the needs of the varsity teams, particularly in raising funds for its operations.

Stories of athletes walking to the venue of their games, or of players taking part in a game with empty stomachs, or a whole varsity team pushing a clunking coaster that has stalled on the way to a venue, filled chat rooms of former varsity players and alumni so that it was impossible for the members of the community to turn a blind eye to these problems anymore.

All these years, the UP Diliman administration, which had the responsibility for all the 29 teams and three performing groups of the university under its wing, had two persons handling the whole program supervised under the College of Human Kinetics (CHK), the university's sports and physical education unit.

Now the OASD, under the office of Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Loujaye Sonido, will have 14 full-time employees assisted by three interim senior staff from from the CHK faculty. CHK Dean Francis Diaz will serve concurrently as the interim OASD director during a transition period.

Diaz cannot hide his excitement with all the developments and how all these will impact on the performance of the varsity teams. He said the university is currently in place to capture the overall UAAP championship, but with this development, "the chances will just increase if you address all the basic needs of the athletes."

But the OASD is more than just the UAAP. UP Diliman Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo stressed the need to take care of the student-athletes' welfare, particularly academic and psycho-social support.

"Out of 1,804 student-athletes admitted in the university since 2010, only 538 students, or well below half of them, have so far graduated, while 321 are no longer enrolled in the university," said Nemenzo.

The OASD will focus on helping the athlete navigate the rigors and challenges of their academic life, including hiring tutors if needed. It will also handle medical support, nutrition and diet of the athletes, as well as housing them in a planned athletes' dormitory.

Also among the listed functions of the OASD will be the recruitment of coaches and players, scientific monitoring and evaluation of teams, fundraising and generation of resources for sports and varsity needs, particularly infrastructure and equipment.

The last part was where the UP community has taken up the slack in the absence of a unit like the OASD, hence the establishment of groups like the Nowhere to Go But Up Foundation and Titas and Titos of UP Fighting Maroons. Nemenzo acknowledged their help in rekindling the varsity spirit and uniting the entire UP community behind the teams.

“The university will continue to work closely with alumni supporters and corporate sponsors for varsity sports development initiatives.”

Interim Associate Director for External Affairs and Resource Generation Patrick Gregorio acknowledged this role the community played in clinching the season 84 mens' basketball crown and help with the varsity teams in other sports but he explained that this is precisely the reason why there's a need for the OASD. "This is the success story, now let us formalize it because it gives way to the next generation of leaders and the next generation of athletes."

Gregorio further explained that the program will help avoid "sponsorship fatigue" because they will have in place a tax break for the institutions helping the team because UP is a government institution.