UAAP president Nonong Calanog of La Salle is hoping the league will soon be given the green light to return to practice as they hope to open its new season in the first quarter of 2022.
The league official shared the UAAP's approach as it patiently waits for the approval to come from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to allow its teams to resume their trainings.
"Our hope is the approval for return to training will be soon so that we can get them back into training by Nov. 1. We have three and a half months for them to train to get back in competition shape to be able to start by mid-February," Calanog said during the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)-sponsored vaccination drive for student-athletes on Wednesday.
Spin.ph reported last week the renewed hope for the member-schools for the resumption of practices.
With the continued vaccation and gradual return of face-to-face classes in the tertiary level, schools have already notified their athletes to prepare in returning to Manila as they expect to be back on the court come November, giving the teams at least three months of training before the planned mid-February opening for UAAP Season 84 men's basketball competitions.
Calanog shared that as far as basketball and volleyball school-athletes are concerned, "all of our players are 100-percent fully vaccinated."
"They're ready to come back. Were just waiting for the permission for them to return to training. Most of our schools are almost 100-percent retrofitted for return to training," he said.
UAAP Volleyball competitions eyed in April 2022
Meanwhile, women's volleyball competitions are pencilled for April after the Holy Week break.
The government officials, though, are firm in saying that for the league to return to competition, all participants must be vaccinated.
"We're not starting from scratch. It should be easy to put it but we must vaccinate these student athletes and the rest of our education sector. Yun ang non-negotiable. Pag bakunado na lahat, mas madali nang i-adjust ang guidelines," said CHED chairman Popoy de Vera.