DOrSU wins podium finishes in pickleball at DAVSURANON Sports Fest

Davao Oriental State University turned the 1st DAVSURANON Sports Fest 2026 into more than a school outing when Lovely Magdipig and Aima Lyn Pagayawan delivered podium finishes in the pickleball events in Digos City. For DOrSU, the result was a small but telling sign that the sport is gaining a firm foothold inside a university system large enough to shape the next wave of players in Mindanao.

The DAVSURANON Sports Fest ran from May 14 to 16, 2026, drawing participants from Davao del Sur State College, Davao del Norte State College, the Southern Philippines Agri-Business and Marine and Aquatic School of Technology, Davao Oriental State University, the University of Southeastern Philippines, and Davao de Oro State College. Davao del Sur State College described pickleball as one of the festival’s highlights, saying it brought out a large crowd of players, supporters, and sports enthusiasts in Digos City.

That visibility matters. The festival was organized by DSSC’s Sports Development Office under Dr. Gideon I. Juezan and carried the theme “Paghiusa pinaagi sa Dula, Kultura, ug Kadasig.” It also folded pickleball into a broader program that included dance competitions, traditional Filipino games, badminton, and food showcases, placing the sport in the same space as the cultural and campus-based activities that often decide which games take root on a university campus. Emmanuel Rene S. Ayo, speaking at the social night, captured the tone of the event with a simple reminder to participants: “Kalaro, hindi kalaban.”

For DOrSU, the timing was especially significant. The university, founded on December 13, 1989, reported a total student population of 16,514 for AY 2025-2026. It had already staged a Labor Day pickleball tournament for employees and stakeholders on May 5, 2026, suggesting the sport was building momentum inside the institution before the DAVSURANON podium finish added another public marker of progress.

That campus-level growth fits a larger national arc. The Philippine Pickleball Federation says the first pickleball clinic in the Philippines was held in Cebu in early 2016, the Philippine Pickleball Sports Association was established on April 15, 2019, and the Philippine Olympic Committee formally welcomed the federation as the country’s national sports association for pickleball on April 14, 2024. The federation now says it has more than 250 member clubs and 17,000 registered players, a scale that helps explain why a university result in Digos City reads as part of a much wider expansion story.

In Mindanao, the pathway is becoming clearer: school festivals are no longer just staging grounds for familiar sports. They are becoming a pipeline, and DOrSU’s finish showed pickleball is already flowing through it.