The Lady Eagles finished their University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 80 Taekwondo championship with an overall silver at 4-2, ranking a place higher than their bronze in Season 79. Much is owed to fiery rookie Danielle Morales, a valuable recruit from Saint Pedro Poveda High School who made her mark on the collegiate mats en route to a podium finish in her UAAP debut.
Raised in a family of Taekwondo jins, the rookie was poised to take the mats as her parents did. The Blue and White clearly ran in the blood, as Morales followed in the footsteps of her older sister Jana, who is a former dual athlete for both Ateneo’s Taekwondo and Women’s Football teams.
Morales herself was primarily focused on football in high school and only trained for Taekwondo before competitions. However, when Ateneo called upon her, she chose to kick on the mats rather than on the field.
“I wasn’t used to fighting [in] college [competitions] of course, and I know that college is a completely different ball game,” she says.
Competing in the welterweight matches, Morales concluded her UAAP debut with a 4-1 win-loss record, dropping just one match the entire season to Shannele Romuar from DLSU. Morales had never lost an in-competition match in high school, making her undefeated on the taekwondo mats prior to entering the UAAP, where she suffered her first ever defeat.
“That was the only match I’ve ever lost. I’ve never experienced it, but it was very humbling and it kind of motivated me more.”
This motivation was a crucial factor throughout the campaign, as she would fight the sixth match in a best-of-seven team-tie. Morales’ position at the penultimate round of the match signified her coach’s trust in her ability and tenacity on the mat despite her youth.
“It was kind of scary when coach would be like ‘If you win then we’ll win everything,’ so of course the pressure was there but I think that also gave me the adrenaline,” says Morales.
After ending her first season averaging 15.6 points per match, second only to teammate Pauline Lopez (21.2 pts), Morales also ranked second on the team in offensive leads averaging a seven-point lead per match and accounted for 1/4 of the team’s total lead per match average.
At the conclusion of a phenomenal breakout into the UAAP scene, Morales snagged a well-deserved Rookie of the Year Award, indicating a bright future for the Lady Eagle.
Heralded as one of the most offensively capable jins on the team, Morales has distinguished herself as one of the league’s most talented rising stars. With composure on the mat and maturity beyond her years, the young gem of Ateneo Taekwondo looks to provide the kick that could send the Lady Eagles to an eventual gold in the coming years.
