SWU to field high school teams in CESAFI

CEBU, Philippines - After years of not having entries in the secondary division, Southwestern University will finally field in teams in girls volleyball and badminton for the 11th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) season.

“To have entries in the secondary division is one of the developments in our sports program since we were not able to put up one before because we only have college squads,” said SWU athletic director Ryan Aznar.

He added that this move is buoyed by their desire to train high school players so that upon their graduation, they will be recruited for the university’s collegiate team.

“It’s so hard to recruit players for college. By having a high school team, it’s no longer hard for us to replace empty slots in the college squads. Most importantly, the program that these high school players experienced will be sustained since they will have the same system in the college,” he said.

SWU also limits the sporting events they will participate in the CESAFI because Aznar said that they do not have sufficient budget for their athletics department.

“Aside from the budget constraints, I want to give focus in each of the sporting event that we will take part because we want to have a winning team,” he said.

Aside from volleyball and badminton, SWU also have entries in athletics, taekwondo and basketball.

The back-to-back CESAFI women’s volleyball champion SWU Lady Cobras of coach Jordan Paca are now gearing towards claiming a grandslam feat this year. 

“Hopefully the girls could get the three-peat this year and all the trainings they have will be worth it,” he added.

Aznar disclosed they hired PHL team women’s coach Sammy Acaylar to train the girls. Acaylar will be coming to Cebu thrice a month for the training.

“We hired her (Acaylar) since she offered to help the team. We just grab the opportunity since it’s very rare to be given such offer,” he said.