Refusing to rely solely on a home-court advantage, athlete representatives from Mindanao State University – General Santos have set their sights straight on a 5-peat championship record in the MSU System Athletic Association (MSUSAA) as they commenced their weekly General Student-Athlete Workout Session facilitated by the Sports Development Office (SDO).
The workout sessions, scheduled every Wednesday, started last March 13 at the University Open Court. They are structured around three main stations, each focusing on different aspects of physical conditioning: acceleration and sprint, muscular endurance, and core strength.
Professor Sammielyn Lavente, SDO Chairperson, emphasized that aside from overall physical conditioning, the General Workout Session also serves to evaluate the athletes' performance and discipline.
“The goal, particularly, is monitoring and then for those who are aspirants of the Sports Development Grant. So, part of my orientation to them is that the training session starting this semester is may attendance monitoring as one of their assessments for application to become a varsity athlete representing MSU-GSC in MSUSAA,” Prof. Lavente explained.
Despite evident exhaustion during the sessions, Intramurals 2024 Sepak Takraw Champion and MVP, Adrian Cañas, expressed appreciation for the initiative.
“Hawud siya na training kay murag naa mi unity ug ma-ilhan namo tanan na varsity sa MSU,” Cañas shared.
Meanwhile, Therese Dawn Pugasa, MSUSAA 2019 Athletics Gold Medalist, stated that the workout session was not entirely new to them, as they had already started their own intensive training every Monday to Friday from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM.
Despite some initial apprehensions about the athletes' performance during the first session, Prof. Lavente remained optimistic.
"As an observation, medyo kulang pa talaga. Well first day pa naman and I hope next meeting may improvement, kasi we are monitoring naman their performance, so we’re gonna have a physical test after two weeks to check," Prof. Lavente expressed.
After several postponements and venue changes throughout the academic year, the MSUSAA is now scheduled to be hosted by MSU-GenSan this semester. Official announcements regarding the exact dates and schedules are yet to be released.
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