Chio Uy wins gold as member of Palaro’s NCR champion football team
As a member of the National Capital Region (NCR) champion football secondary team, Justin Luis “Chio” J. Uy of ABM/12-Anchieta received a gold medal at Palarong Pambansa 2018 last April. He was the only Atenean on the team, which consisted mainly of football players from National University representing Manila.
So how did an Ateneo de Manila/Quezon City football player end up in the NCR/Manila team? Chio explains that the selection process for the team that would represent NCR at the 2018 Palaro began with the local divisions of Quezon City. Ateneo High School’s Blue Booters lost to Claret School of Quezon City during the playoffs, resulting in Claret advancing as division representative. To determine which team would represent Quezon City, it came down to Claret or FEU in the Quezon City meet. Claret recruited Chio and two other Ateneans, eventually winning the right to represent Quezon City after beating FEU. Claret then advanced to the NCR meet, but made it only up to the semi-finals after losing to Makati City. Manila, represented by National University, emerged as champion of the NCR meet. After a few days, Chio got a call where he was told he was being recruited along with players from other schools to be part of the NCR football team.
NCR emerged as overall champion of Palaro for the 14th consecutive year, with a medal haul of 100 gold, 70 silver, and 50 bronze medals. Palarong Pambansa 2018 was held in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur from April 14-19, 2018.
