With or without the basketball and volleyball games, organizers are determined to continue with their plans to push through with the start of Season 97 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
With the help of the Commission on Higher Education, the league can still stage the ballgames once the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases decides on a proposal that that they have put forward.
“NCAA applied for exemption for contact sports training under Alert Level 3 to CHED, which shall endorse to IATF for approval,” said NCAA management committee chairman Dax Castellano of Season 97 host College of St. Benilde, in an interview with the Manila Standard.
If their plan is turned down, the league could once again be limited to online events.
“We are waiting for their approval to resume contact sports training as per the CHED-DOH Joint Memorandum Circular No. 4, Series of 2021,” added Castellano.
Under the circular, “contact and non-contact sports activities for PE classes are allowed in areas under Alert Level 1 and 2. Only non-contact sports activities are allowed in areas under Alert Level 3.”
The circular added that it will make room for adjustments should they be necessary.
“In the event of new IATF resolutions on the conduct of contact and non-contact sports, such is deemed part of the issuance and should be observed,” according to the memo.
This means that they will just settle for the staging of online chess games and skills events in taekwondo, which involve speed kicking and poomsae.
The league opens Season 97 on March 5.
The Mancom talked in detail of their plans last Friday, now that the National Capital Region is on COVID-19 Alert Level 3, following a big spike in virus cases recently.