Is Cebu qualified for the National Team?

They say that making it to the national team for any sport is one of the highlights of an athlete's career. To some, it's the apex of all sports that is as valuable as making a living as a professional athlete. Basketball, boxing and billiards seem to be the only sports where one can earn a living here in the Philippines.

Thus, the athletes of other sports don't have any other dream other than a place on the Philippine team as their career achievement. Winning a medal while donning the country's tri-colors becomes an icing on the cake of an already big achievement.

So how is Cebu in this department? I bring this up since there seems to be a trend to tap Cebuanos or Cebu-trained players for the country's national football teams. The latest national football team to be formed is the U14 squad and try-outs for this are being facilitated by the Cebu Football Association (CFA). Will a Cebuano make it to the team?

Although Iloilo will always be the top contributor of players to all national football teams, Cebu is slowly but surely making its mark. It wasn't too long ago when Cebu-based football players also made it to the age group national teams.

Kitek Alazas, who strutted his wares at Abellana, UV and presently Hiroshi, was once a goalkeeper of the Philippine U19 team. The Carmen boys led by present men's national team players Arnie Pasinabo and Michael Casas were also part of the U17 national team shortly after their runner-up finish at a Coke Go for Goal national championship. Josaphat Sacil and three other Carmen boys also made it to the team. Ref Cuaresma, who manned the goal for Southwestern University is currently in the national team. Oliver Colina of USJR is also part of the national training team pool of players. Some of the Don Bosco Boys Home players of ex-national team player Glenn Ramos also made it to at least the national training team pool of players. These included Ian Uba and Rocky Graciano. These are names that come out top-of-mind, but I'm sure Cebu has contributed more in this department. My apologies if I missed out on some of them.

Talking about Cebu players on the national team not only makes one excited. It also makes us proud of our products. When Arnie Pasinabo was named MVP at the national football championships, Cebu football people automatically remembered him as one of the Carmen boys even if he's really from San Carlos (Negros Occidental) and now plays for University of St. La Salle in Bacolod. Ditto for Michael Casas who was the national team's starting goalkeeper at the Southeast Asian Games last November. Casas now plays college football for NCAA four-peat champions San Beda.

But is this it? Are we already satisfied with all our products who have made it to the national team? Or shouldn't we be pushed to even do more?

I prescribe with the latter since I know we can surely contribute more players to a national team and even outdo Iloilo in this department. But we can't do it overnight. We have to lay the foundation that produces this kind of results. The ongoing search for players to the national U14 football team will serve as a good gauge to assess where we are in developing this foundation.

For a player to make it to a national U14 team, he must have come from a wide and successful youth-based football program for players obviously younger than 14. He must have learned to play football when he was around seven or eight years old when he was in Grade One. Starting younger than this would already be a bonus. His involvement in football would have taken him from the practice grounds of his school or home club to competitions or football festivals that are common for age group football. He'll improve his skills through all these and the big test is when he starts playing 11-a-side football on a regular sized football field right in his U12 days.

A minor but interesting case study that's worth looking into is the football program of the Ateneo de Manila University. Ateneo won its third straight UAAP football championship this year, going undefeated throughout the season and conceding only one goal in this drive. When asked about what contributed to this achievement, the Ateneo football coach and director said that over half of the members of the team were products of the Ateneo Football Camp, a school-wide football program that starts at Grade School all the way through high school and on to college. This is basically the same set-up you'll see in Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo and the more successful and obviously bigger programs in Brazil and Europe.

The question now is, "How is Cebu Football's age group program for the U12 age groups and younger?" The ongoing try-outs for the U14 national team will thus become an automatic dipstick check on the status of our football programs for kids. And yes, these are the kind of tests that Cebu Football will need to see what we've done so far, and what else we'll need to do.

I'm sure that the CebuFA, in its drive to promote local football, will be ready to take a look at the bigger and long-term picture to improve our football status in the country. And it all starts at the bottom: the kids.

By starting low, we're sure to make it big.

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Time out: We'd like to thank all of those who joined us in our prayers for my late mother-in-law, Mariana Remoreras. She was laid to rest yesterday in Clarin, Bohol. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].