THE country's oldest collegiate league has accepted the reality that it won't be easy to bring back contact sports in the new normal.
"I don't think for this season contact sports will be available for us," NCAA Season 96 Management Committee (Mancom) chair Fr. Vic Calvo, OP of host Letran admitted on Friday during the online media launch of the league's virtual season.
"We're really squeezing kung ano ang pwede sa new normal, pero iba na talaga ang season ngayon, and online is the safest."
It's the bitter reality the decades-old league has come to grips with as the staging of traditional events like basketball and volleyball have already been cancelled for this athletic year.
Calvo said the NCAA explored the possibility of holding competition bubbles, but the government's restrictions just won't let non-professional leagues from holding competition, more so in contact sports.
In its lieu of games, the collegiate league will hold virtual, skills-based competitions for both basketball and volleyball, with the participants conducting activities in the confines of their own homes.
"After having a thorough research, which was done in a very comprehensive and scholarly way, it is the most reasonable way of presenting Season 96," said Calvo ahead of the opening of the season on Sunday.
Those disciplines will join taekwondo in the form of poomsae and speed kicking, and online chess as among the events to be played this year.
"We're taking the leap of faith, but it's not blind faith. It's something reasonable, kung ano ang pwede ngayon. It's just that yung contact sports, bawal pa ngayon," he said.
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