Where do you go from here? The UAAP's residency rules looms over the heads of student-athletes again.

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Where do you go from here?

After an incredible sports season, some student-athletes are facing the grim reality of not knowing where to go with the UAAP's inane residency rules hanging over their heads.

by rick olivares

With the sports season done and the school year drawing to a close, some graduating student-athletes are worried that their windows of opportunity are closing.

There is no resolution to the controversial residency rules that saw the league beset by a pair of temporary restraining orders this season. There are rumors of their supposed repeal but to date, they are simply that – rumors.

In the meantime, the student-athletes are feeling the grip of the Gestapo-like rules.

A couple of graduating high school basketball players wanted to try out for other UAAP schools. They were informed that their school was going to get them for the college team but the two aren’t convinced. They know management is constantly on the lookout for players to recruit. There seems to be a new face on campus every time they look around. They haven’t been promised anything and that makes them nervous. A slot on Team B won’t cut it. But they are afraid of moving because management has threatened to slap the residency rule on them.

They are also hesitant to move to rival NCAA. What for? They have tasted the power and appeal of the UAAP and they know that they stand to gain more by staying in the latter.

The father of another player is suddenly afraid. The saying about “not biting the hand that feeds you” might come back to haunt him and his son.

When his son was being hotly recruited by one high school, a lot of his requests (read: demands) were granted. And now in an epiphany, he realizes that he has opportunities in the bigger and more popular schools. They are thinking of leaving but now they are being held back. The release papers are dangling over their heads. He wants to lash out but he can’t.

“If I had only known…” the father’s voice trails off.

One player’s father overstated his son’s value. He asked for the moon and came away with not even the sky. It is a sobering experience. The son, so promising, just hung his head. In the meantime, the school where he made a name for himself and spurned at first is having a laugh and making his stew on his own fat. Now you wait, said one team official.

What happened there?

What now?

Where do you go from here?

* Names have been withheld to protect them from unscrupulous school officials.