Football in Boljoon

After so much anticipation, today is the big day when we gather in the southern town of Boljoon, Cebu along with other football families for a clinic and a mini-tournament.  I do hope I’d still have the energy for the concert later in the day.

The event is dubbed as the “Chad Alesna Gould (Proud to be Boljoanon) Benefit Event.”

Just like those popular coffee mixes that we usually have in the office, this is also a 3-in-1 event.

The soccer clinic will open the day and kids aged 6 to 12 years old will be the participants of the activity to be handled by no less than Chad, a Filipino-British member of the national soccer team.

In the afternoon, there will be a mini tournament, which shall also serve as some sort of practicum for the kids after the clinic.

I’d like to stay in the town, which lies 95 kilometers south of Cebu City until the evening for the benefit concert, but then that would all depend whether I still have enough energy.

In the concert, Chad will display his singing talent to his townmates.  The man is not just a bathroom singer like most of us, his band Redgrave has a recording contract in England their first album is due for release very soon.

I expect to see many familiar faces in Boljoon today, so see you there and drive safely.

* * *

My fraternity brother Raymund ‘Jiggy Jr.’ Cerna asked me an interesting question yesterday morning when I dropped by radio station Y101 FM.  This was and off the air conversation, but then I’m sure there are many who are interested to know.

Jiggy asked me, “Why do these cyclists take these banned substances, when they know these are illegal?”

He asked this question in light of the controversy in the Tour de France where no less than erstwhile race leader Michael Rasmussen was kicked out by his own team, Rabobank.

Although talk is rife about allegations of doping, there isn’t proof that Rasmussen has indeed used banned substances to help his performance.  It is however a team decision and definitely one that is going to hit not only the cyclist very hard but also the team itself.

Now, back to the earlier question, I believe that in many cases the taking of banned substances in unintentional.

Sometimes, there are chemicals added to supplements that are precursors or contain very minimal amounts of banned substances that would come out during routine tests.

There are of course those who really take them to improve their performance, but with very stringent rules about the use of these substances, any athlete in his right mind would avoid doing such.

It is just unfortunate that doping controversies have become synonymous to the Tour de France.

Now, there are even allegations made by the legendary Gary Player that some of the world’s top golfers are using performance enhancing drugs.

He must have to prove that first or he’ll end up just ruining the career of people with loose talk.

I still admire Mr. Player having had the chance to meet him face-to-face twice, but that statement just seems like a shot that has gone out of bounds.