The League of the Red Dragon

Written by: Nicholas T. Mapa (alumnus, MSIE ’03)
Posted: June 22, 2009

On March 24, 2009, The League of the Red Dragon, an informal association of UA&P alumni interested in supporting the UA&P community and varsity teams was launched as an Alumni Initiative under the Office of Alumni Affairs.

The inauguration coincided with the annual Dragons' Night Awarding ceremony where the UA&P Varsity Hall of Fame Awards and UNITAS Alumni Initiative Award were launched as well.

The Hall of Fame acknowledges outstanding alumni athletes who have greatly contributed to the academic and athletic life of the University. This special induction ceremony only happens every 5 years.

The Gold Awards recognize UA&P varsity alumni who have made the University proud by competing internationally in their respective sports. The awardees have been nominated by UA&P’s Center for Students and Alumni. This year’s inductees were:

• Charissa Marie Mijares Aguiling (Gold medalist, Figure Skating)
• Krishna Day Figueroa Javier (RP Team Futsal, Bronze medalist SEA Games)
• Jaime Amiel Atienza Pahati (4th place ESPN Asian X Games, Sports Climbing)
• Nicholas Valino Reyes (RP Team Futsal, Asian Football Federation 2007)
• Christian Jan Raquepo Suarez (RP Bowling, World Champion)

The Red Awards recognize UA&P varsity alumni who have made the University proud by competing locally in their respective sports. Again, the awardees have been nominated by UA&P’s Center for Students and Alumni. This year’s inductees were:

• Stella Marie Tinoloc Baltao (Dan Landry Invitational Champion, 2000)
• Raphael Miguel Paola Fabie, Jr. ( NCRAA and MNCAA final four, 1st Runner-up)

The 1st UNITAS Alumni Initiative Award was handed to Mr. Tyrone Emmanuel Ignacio Limon, Tournament Director of the President’s Cup Basketball League. Coach Tye as the students and alumni would call him has been organizing the PresCup for the past 5 years. He was also the former assistant coach of the Men’s Basketball Varsity Team.

All the awardees were given special framed certificates prepared by the Office of Alumni Affairs. They were also given gift certificates from Red Corner, the official sponsor of the 2009 Dragons’ Night.

Also something to note, Dragons' Night this year did away with the usual sit down dinner in the MPC. The ceremonies were held at Li Seng Giap where all the athletes were dressed in their formal attire, each given hoodie jackets provided by the OSA–SportsDEV. It was quite an enjoyable experience as an alumnus to see all the Red Dragons dressed up to receive their awards. The venue and the atmosphere really enhanced the camaraderie amongst the teams and all the different varsity teams really looked like one team: TEAM UA&P.

At the end of the ceremony, Squadra asked the athletes to wear their hoodie jackets and led the teams in cheering our first ever alumni written cheer (in Latin!) with all the teams joining in!

After the awarding, we all headed down to Prom B (now called the Study Hall B) and had cocktails complete with some red wine. We also took in our first donations for the League of the Red Dragon Fund, which aims to support varsity student-athletes by way of tuition scholarships. Red Dragon Scholars are varsity athletes who maintain an academic GWA of 1.75 or better, all the while retaining their varsity status in their respective team.

It was also nice to see some familiar faces in the audience as a number of varsity alumni were present for the awarding ceremonies.

We hope to see more alumni in the next event!

All the best and UNITAS UA&P!

For all those interested in supporting the League of the Red Dragon Fund, please call the Office of Alumni Affairs at 637-0912 local 397 and look for Carla Estanislao or e-mail alumni at uap.asia.