NCAA first semester sports events are almost over. With that, let’s take a look at Mapua Cardinals’ performance this season and in the last four season before that.

This season, Mapua is 4th place in basketball, 8th in beach volleyball, 2nd in cheerleading, 4th in chess, 3rd in swimming, and 6th in table tennis.

Here’s some hightlights from the past:

• Since winning our first basketball championship in 1949, the Mapua Cardinals bagged a total of 5 championsips—the last of these championships was won in 1991.
• The Mapua beach volleyball team have never won a championship since the sport was introduced in 2002.
• The Mapua Cheerping Cardinals holds only one cheerleading championships when they won it during NCAA’s first ever cheerdancing competition held in 2004.
• The Mapua Woodpushers holds the NCAA record for the most number of chess championships with a total of 11—the last of these championships was won in 2002.
• The Mapúa Tankers holds the NCAA record for the most number of swimming championships with a total of 40—the last of these championships was won in 1996.
• The Mapua Table Nettters holds a total of 3 championships—the last of these championships was won in 1996.

The Mapúa Cardinals holds the NCAA record for the most number of General Championsips with a total of 20—the last of these championships was won in 1993.

We’ve been at the top and right now we are nowhere near it. What are we going to do?

Every school wants to win. Every school wants to have a trophy. Every school wants fame and glory. Yet only few schools understand that, in order to, right pieces are needed to be put together; they need athletes that can deliver, they need effective programs to help them improve, and they need the right coach for guidance.

With all that said, here’s my personal thoughts to help improve our performance in the NCAA and to reclaim the General Championship.

Better academic program for athletes. By far, the most often neglected and the most important program every school should provide to their athletes is a good academic program.

Mapua use the quarterm system, that means the pace is much faster compared with other NCAA schools which use the semester system. Missing a class or two can leave you way behind. Most often than not, exam schedule overlaps competition schedule. It is much less-forgiving and, as a whole, more challenging for the student-athletes.

My good coach, Sir Divina, said to me that Mapua student-athletes are students first before an athlete. Mapua student-athletes aims to excel both in academics and sports. Excellence is one of Mapua’s core values after all.

So how can they excel? Let’s take a look at how student-athletes manage their time, how they balance academics and sports.
Let me ask you these questions, suppose you’re an athlete and you’re a top caliber player and you or your team have a great chance of winning a championship. What would you do more, hone your skills or academics? Or suppose there is a high paying professional league waiting for you when you perform exemplary well during your college years as an amateur athlete, what would you do more, hone your skills or academics? Conversely, if there is no professional league in your sports, what would you do? Would you still prefer to do more of sports than academics?

In an ideal world, we like student-athletes to put more amount of time and effort in academics than sports activities. Some actually do that while some put equal amount of time for both. But in reality, top caliber student-athletes will almost always put more time in honing their skills than academics.

Personally, I think that whatever path our athletes choose to take, our school should add more effort in providing athletes better academic program that will help them succeed in both sports and academics.

Implement a better recruitment program. To win a championship you need good players and to have good players you need to have a good a recruitment program. Few schools implement a good recruitment program and we can understand why, because it’s costly. Schools need to shell out more money for it because they need to send out more scouts in different places to look for potential student-athletes and more money to offer them scholarships, food, and boarding allowances among others.

In my opinion, Mapua has a decent recruitment program just not in all sports. I understand more money is needed to cover them all so I’m calling the alumni to help our athletes.

Provide effective training program. Even if the players are good they still need to improve. That’s the beauty of sports, there is a certain level of competitiveness at any one time and it is raised every now and then. By providing our athletes an effective training program, we’ll be more competitive, will have more wins, and eventually, championships.

Bring in a good coach. It doesn’t matter if it is a singles or a team competition, every athlete knows how important having a good coach is. A good coach knows how to use players effectively, knows how to train athletes for them to reach their full potential, and they know the right strategies to win the game.

Provide athletes proper nutritional diet. Proper diet, including carbohydrates and proteins intake are required for optimal athletic performance. Let’s help them by giving effective meal plan.

Raise school spirit. There’s a reason why cheer-leading was invented. Players needs to be cheered, they need to be motivated. Raising school spirit raises the player’s morale and it helps their performance during the game. Let the students, alumni, and faculty watch the games to show we support our athletes, win or lose.

To the second semester sports student-athletes (Football, Lawn Tennis, Track& Field, and Volleyball), good luck and God bless!