THE thinking is that they have been bridesmaids for too long already and maybe, just maybe, they can finally cross from almost to actual.

I am talking of the women’s varsity softball team of the University of the Philippines which in the last two years finished in second place behind the reigning champions Adamson University in the UAAP.

The fact is Adamson won its 11th straight championship in 2024, with 20 titles over all for the school, something that might have caused other universities to opt not to join and conceding already to the Lady Falcons in this sport.

As it is, ony give teams are playing in this sport, aside from Adamson and UP, it is only University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University, and Ateneo de Manila are entered in the women’s softball competitions.

A little digression, I disagree that simply because a team keeps on winning championships, it should not be a reason for others to give up, a team that keeps on winning must be doing sonething right for them to achieve that, and they should be emulated abd not avoided.

Last year was the closest that UP got to ending the long reign of Adamson as they even won Game 1 of the best of 3 finals, but lost the next two games, including Game 3 by just one run, that is why I say almost.

I had a chat with UP coach, forner Blu Boys pitcher and a member of the Blu Girls coaching staff until a few years ago, Ronny Pagkaliwagan, and in the vernacular, he said his team is already ” gigil na manalo ” against Adamson, but still playing safe that he looks at it as a 50-50 thing.

If other teams lost hope about beating Adamson, his team used the fact that they have not beaten Adamson for the title as a challenge and primary motivation, and for me, this is the right response, and it has worked

It seems as far as UP is concerned.

And so the team has been preparing long and hard, last year, the team went to Taipei for a training camp, late last year, UP joined an international open women’s softball tournament that included teams from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Brunei that featured Adamson players . And UP ruled the event, raising further the team’s confidence.

But Ronny is not ruling out the other teams like UST and De La Salle as possible title contenders saying these teams have also been improving but with Adamson and UP as top seeds, this even as these two schools lost a few players to graduation, two from the Lady Falcons’ first 9, and one from UP.

As I said in my piece about Adamson, I believe I will end up watching some UAAP softball games to see whether Adamson will continue to be the bride or will UP relegate them to being the bridesmaid this season.

Now, I am taking a Partas bus to Laoag upon the invitation of Mayor Mike Keon not just for his 3rd Sand Dunes 5K and 10K race on Saturday, I also intend to interview former Gintong Alay head coach Anthony Benson whom the Mayor has tapped to help his Laoag team prepare for the Palarong Pambansa to be hosted by Laoag City.

This is what I like about Mike, he knows sports and he delivers, if you remember, last year, for the first time, Laoag beat its bigger rival provinces and cities for the overall championship in the Region 1 meet, preparing his athletes way ahead of time, and with the help of Benson this year.

We should be able to discuss too the updates on his proposed training center for Laoag and how the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) can possibly work with the city for a regional training center.

And maybe experience anew a 4×4 wheel drive experience in the sand dunes as we did last year, but definitely not sand boarding.

I do not know too if Mike will run again the 5K distance in the Sand Dunes event as he did last year.

Laoag, here I come.

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Lito Cinco