I'd rather be playing football

I had an attentive audience yesterday morning at the Cebu Normal University during a short talk about sportswriting in the Campus Journalism Seminar for tertiary students.

They were writers from the publications of various campuses of state schools around the province.

It was another invitation I could not turn down since it was my high school classmate Nona Bacatan-Suerte, of the CNU English Department, who invited me.

It's fun talking to such an audience that was receptive. The reason why I sometimes hate being a teacher when you try so hard to impart something to your students and they just refuse to listen.

Much like instructions from a coach that don't get followed inside the court because the players did not bother to listen and in the end, the coach still gets the blame for the loss.

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I enjoy racing so much, but only when I am in the couch, an easy chair or maybe in bed watching TV but not behind the wheel nor sweating it out on the open bleachers or worse on the open spaces beside the racetrack.

This weekend, the South Road Properties (the new name of the South Reclamation Project) will host the 4th Mayor Tommy Osmeña National Drag Race.

Great! We have another major national sporting event in Cebu.

On the other hand, I'd like to thumb my nose on the organizers because they would be closing the Cebu South Coastal Road for two days.

Luckily it's a weekend, but then it's still a major hassle to thousands of people, who use the SRP as access to the city and to the southern part of the province.

What I still can't figure out is how can such races promote the SRP as a venue for business?

Maybe the publicity the SRP gets for hosting the race brings in investors. What's the tag line? "Open a business at the SRP and we'll close it for a drag race."

I sure hope that organizers of such races can find better reason to close the place for a sporting activity.

The prices of fuel might have gone down the past few months, but it's still hard to understand their reasoning. Maybe it's the reason why I am no racer.

The real reason is that I can't afford to spend money on fast cars. I'd rather play football with my buddies.

Makes me wish the football field at the SRP would open very soon.

I believe a sports facility that people would go to for health, physical fitness, and family bonding would be the best way to promote the SRP without having to cause too much hassle to thousands of people.

I suddenly miss wearing my soccer shoes, which I haven't donned for over a month now. That explains the heavy feeling around my waist. No, it's not constipation.

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While writing this piece, I received a text message from fellow columnist Valeriano 'Bobit' Avila.

His message goes: "re your column today… a good one... Schumi was the best racer in Brazil bar none! He merely ran out of time otherwise he could easily have won that race!"

Yep, he ran out of time just like golfers running out of holes when they suddenly start making birdies late in the round.

Oh well, life is not always what we want it. What if Michael Schumacher won in Brazil? I don't like to think about it anymore. I'll just relish the thought that for many times in my life Schumi made my day by winning races.