According to Jose Rizal University athletic director Paul Supan and Emilio Aguinaldo College Vice President for Administration Dr. Lorenzo C. Lorenzo, there will be 4 new sports included in the NCAA Season 101.
4 Demo Sports with Numerous Filipino Sports Icons
Based on the Forum of Philippine Sportswriters Association, which happened last September 30, 2025, at Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, both Dr. Lorenzo and Sir Supan addressed the need to start a particular field in which young student athletes can follow the footsteps of iconic Filipino sports athletes.
These 4 new sports that will be included in Season 101 are: Golf, Weightlifting, Gymnastics, and Boxing.
For Gymnastics, there’s Carlos Yulo, who won 2 Olympic Gold Medals in the 2024 Paris Olympics. For Weightlifting, there’s Hidilyn Diaz, who won the Philippines’ first gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Diaz is also a graduate of an NCAA school, which is the College of Saint Benilde.
For Boxing, there are multiple Olympic medalists from the Philippines. There’s the iconic Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco, who won silver in 1996. Carlo Paalam won silver in 2020 along with Nesthy Petecio in the women’s division. In 2024, Petecio won again, but this time it was a bronze, and Aira Villegas also won bronze in the women’s division.
In Golf, despite not being a “household name”, many Golfers have won medals in the Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games.
There’s Yuka Saso, who won a gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games in the women’s singles division, and for the women’s team, Saso then won gold with Bianca Pagdanganan and Lois Kaye Go. While the most recent is in the 2023 SEA Games, which features again the women’s team of Go with Rianne Malixi and others winning bronze.
It’s a NEED to Begin these Sports Tournaments
When asked who will be the participants in these 4 sports, more specifically, will it just be men who will play? Women’s? The junior’s squad? Here’s his response:
“It depends on the sign-up, depende sa proposal na ma-adopt natin. Siyempre mas gusto natin lahat para ma-cover all types of participation.”
Despite being labeled as “Demonstration Sports”, only 4 to 5 schools have expressed participation in the 4 new Olympic sports. The names of the schools were kept private.
Mr. Supan then highlighted the need to start one, noting that the NCAA is the grassroots of training Filipino athletes.
“Pero like what I said earlier, ang importante ay may masimulan. Kahit men’s lang or women’s lang or even the developmental side. Yung NCAA grassroots eh, maihahatid natin sila sa elite level.”
“Gusto natin lahat pero kung ano yung masisimulan, simulan na natin.” he added.
These demo sports are set to take place come the 2nd semester, which is in 2026, and will be the first major collegiate league to have these sporting tournaments, even getting ahead of their UAAP counterpart.
“The NCAA and PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) ay nagkaroon ng partnership in terms of training and developing these grassroots athletes,” said Dr. Lorenzo.
Supan said under NCAA rules, a demo sport that has been played for 3 straight years can be elevated to regular status, subject to certain conditions.
