Athletes donning the NOPSSCEA colors are hard pressed to keep their eight team titles to pose a serious challenge of dethroning Iloilo in the 2008 Western Visayas Private Schools Athletic Association Meet next month in Iloilo City and Kalibo, Aklan.

NOPSSCEA is defending champion in women's athletics, women's chess, men's football, men and women's table tennis, men and women's taekwondo and women's volleyball of the week-long meet that formally kicks off Feb. 7.

Men's football, with 11 golds at stake, will kick off hostilities on Feb. 4 at the Iloilo Sports Complex. Bannering the NOPSSCEA campaign are players from West Negros College and University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos .

WVPRISAA technical director Roger Banzuela said the tournament will start a day earlier because a third team -- Antique -- has entered the event. Negros Occidental and Iloilo have been playing best-of-three series to determine the champion for the past four editions of the event.

The ISC is also the venue for athletics and swimming. Seeing action there is the Negros women's athletics squad, which remains formidable and has been bolstered by the entry of former Palaro standouts Anna Mae Dionela and Jossie Entrina.

Also beefed up are the men and women's swimming squads, which will have multi-titled tankers Miguel Lorenzo Villanueva and Dominique Balinas in its fold.

Action in Kalibo begins Feb. 7 with the opening ceremonies set at the ABL Sports Complex.

The Negros women's volleyball team that will bid for another crown is made up mostly of University of St. La Salle players and three standouts from UNO-R.

In chess, the NOPSSCEA colors will be carried by six WNC players, three from UNO-R and one from La Salle , while taekwondo will be bannered by John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation and La Consolacion College.

UNO-R and La Salle join forces in table tennis.

Despite their second-place finish last year, the Negros men's basketball team have been installed as early favorites with WVPRISAA technical director Roger Banzuela indicating that the Iloilo squad won't be as formidable as last year when it was represented by University of Iloilo players.

The men and women's badminton squads from Riverside College are also seeking redemption just like the men's volleyball squad, which came a set away from the crown, before giving it away to Iloilo in a do-or-die duel.

Also hoping to bounce back is the sepak takraw team, which will be composed of La Salle, UNO-R and Visayan Maritime Academy players.

Banzuela said the effectiveness of their strategy to turn this year's NOPSSCEA season into a week-long event will once again be tested in the regional meet.

“The week-long schedule worked for us because some teams, which had players from different school, had enough time to practice together,” Banzuela said.

NOPSSCEA shifted from a weekends-only event into a week-long tournament last year and so far, the results in other meets have turned out to be positive.

In one of their best finishes in years, athletes from Negros Occidental's private schools topped the secondary division of the Palarong Panlalawigan and also came second in the elementary category.

“The week-long schedule worked for us because some teams, which had players from different school, had enough time to practice together,” Banzuela said

He also said organizers have invited Senate President Manny Villar and Philippine sports commissioner Eric Loretizo to the opening ceremonies.*CPT

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