‘Rebranded’ CESAFI takes off

CEBU, Philippines —  With its usual pomp and pageantry, the rebranded Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) will kick off its Season 19 this afternoon at the Cebu Coliseum.

In what promises to be a historic and record-breaking season in CESAFI's nearly two decades of existence, the league boasts of a production and coverage, marketing, and digital media committees that are organized and managed by student volunteers from various universities - a milestone in Philippine sports.

Season 19 also takes on a distinct identity, adopting an emblem that reflects the vigor and dynamism of the league and its students, at the same time paying homage to the elements of the official CESAFI logo.

And to usher in the new era of Cebu's premiere inter-school athletic league today, a grandiose opening rites will take place at 1 p.m. starting of with the parade of athletes.

The other highlights of the elaborate kick-off bash that will run for three hours is the selection of the Miss CESAFI 2019 in both high school and college divisions, and the traditional 'Grand Palabas', a series of dazzling presentations by students of the league's member schools.

At 4 p.m., exciting hardcourt action will commence featuring the Don Bosco Greywolves against the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) Dragons in the juniors category and the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) Wildcats versus the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars in the seniors level.

The other contenders in the seniors division are three-time defending champions University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers, University of San Carlos (Warriors), University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters, Southwestern University (SWU)-Phinma Cobras, and the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers.

In the juniors battle, the rest of entries are reigning titleholders UC Junior Webmasters, its sister-team UC Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue Campus, UV Baby Lancers, SWU-Phinma Baby Cobras, USC Baby Warriors, USJ-R Baby Jaguars, USPF Baby Panthers, CIT-U Wildkittens, and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) Magis Eagles.

Aside from basketball, the season has lined up 15 other sporting disciplines including football, athletics, swimming, volleyball, badminton, table tennis, weightlifting, dancesport, chess, scrabble and lawn tennis.

Eskrima/arnis, patintero, and e-sports, on other hand, will make their debut as demonstration games.