The Varsitarian

ARE THOMASIANS ready for the “Super Bowl?”

A group of Thomasians enamored with American football is trying to introduce the game on campus with the goal of forming a UST-wide team, a first in the country.

“We were influenced to play the sport by our Fil-Am friends headed by Ryan Go,” said Leo Montalvo, one of the instigators of the sport in the University. “We contacted them three years ago to play with them.” The encounter with the Fil-Am group inspired them to introduce the sport in UST.

This contact sport involves a lot of highly physical moves where teams tackle each other in order to bring the ball called “pigskin” to the opponent’s end zone.

Montalvo said that about 30 people were already undergoing training scheduled every Saturday. Despite this, the sport still has a long way to go before being recognized as an official UST sport.

“We asked the Institute of Physical Education and Athletics (IPEA) for accreditation but they were not concerned with sports not related with UAAP,” Montalvo said. “Instead, we are pushing through with the Office for Student Affairs (OSA) for our group to be recognized as an organization.”

IPEA Director Fr. Ermito de Sagon, O.P. said school officials were not entertaining non-UAAP sports during the sporting season. “There are a lot of scheduled games so we are really short on time,” De Sagon said. “We cannot even fit them in practices since there are a lot of teams that use the field.”

Moreover, there are a lot of factors, which made them ineligible to be considered a sport in the UAAP.

“Almost half of the schools involved in UAAP, including UST, cannot afford the venue, which is bigger than a football field,” De Sagon added. “Not to mention the expensive gears like helmets, pads and uniforms.”

The team is also hoping to compete in the Arena Ball Philippines (ABP) League this March. ABP is a Filipino organization that promotes “tackle football.”

Despite the willingness of the Thomasian group to play in the ABP league, Montalvo said he and his teammates were not yet ready since they lack both a regular lineup and preparation. For now, most of the trainers are simply enjoying the new sport. “We’re not demanding too much from the players,” Montalvo said. “It’s actually fun and most of them enjoy playing football.” Robin G. Padilla with reports from Jeremy S. Perey