Sports sa Kabataan

Sports sa Kabataan. It’s admittedly not a great sounding slogan or motto, but as the country goes out to vote for their barangay chairmen, councilors and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials, I can’t help but cite the importance of the relationship between youth development and sports.

It’s something that SK candidates always talk about, and they even sound as good as the veteran politicians when they promise to use sports as a tool to develop the youth. But where are all the activities from all these? Where are the sports programs, competitions, training clinics and top young prospects from all this?

But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s just assume that all our SK representatives just forgot about their promises of the past. More importantly, let’s also assume that they’re honest (not corrupt) and have genuine concern for their constituents. And finally, let’s assume that they listen to unsolicited advice from the all bleacher talk from bleacher bums like this corner. Let’s then make a fresh start and remind them again of what they can do for grassroots sports development.

For starters, the SK will have to remember that they’re in charge in running the affairs of the youth of their respective barangays. My guess is that they’re very much aware of this even if at times I have my doubts. And as a set of SK officials of a town, they form a network of barangay officials who can work together to.

When one talks about youth development, sports should be part and parcel of this package/program. The other and more important side of it is education. Somewhere in the mix should be the SK officials relying on these two pillars that reflect what the youth represent.

Every barangay will always have its collection of kids and an elementary school nearby. These are the kids who you’ll see playing in the streets, plaza or barangay center with a lot of energy and passion. The bigger barangays also have a school named after its own, or if it’s a small barangay, it will most likely be attached to a school of a bigger barangay.

So what does this all mean to SK officials? Or does it mean anything at all to them? If they can’t see the connection, then I’m afraid they don’t deserve to be holding on to their posts any longer. But like I said, let’s assume that they can see through all this and are willing to do something about it.

When they realize the presence of all the kids in their turf and recognize the role of sports in youth development, they’ll develop a sports program for all these kids. And when they know they can tap the nearby elementary school as a base of operations, they’ll have all pieces of the puzzle fitting in nicely. I’d like to see the SK officials of my barangay conducting sports clinics for the youth. They can reach the kids through the nearest public school, while the out-of-school kids can’t be too hard to find. You can have twice to three times a week training or practice sessions in the school grounds or the multi-purpose center of the barangay. And I’m not talking about a particular sport for these kids. Basketball, football and volleyball may be the most logical sports to develop due to the popularity of these events. Baseball, boxing, track and field and running are also other options that shouldn’t be that difficult to develop. Note that even dance sport clinics are being in some public schools in Cebu. You can also go with chess, table tennis and gymnastics. The list is deep and realistic, isn’t it?

When all these clinics or training sessions are blooming and the kids are starting to develop the talent and skills for the game, they can have friendly competitions through mini tournaments such as the ones that we experienced at our school intramurals. And when the timing is ripe, inter-barangay competitions can also be held. From these competitions will sprout the potential stars of the future. These competitions will sharpen the athlete in all these kids and will thus develop them to become better persons. And when all these kids develop themselves this way, we’ll have an entire town or city growing up with mature kids produced by a sports program.

I realize that many will say that all this is possible only in one’s dreams. But then again, since when has it been a crime to dream?My only prayer is that our SK officials realize that they too can (or should?) also dream this way.

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Time-out:  Today is the big day for Gabby Malagar in Mambaling! He’s someone who can dream with me this way.

You can reach me at [email protected].