The light behind the stars

Mothers who were once the half of the our parents that would keep us away from sports and tuck us into bed in the afternoons for our siesta have long evolved into a totally supportive individual willing to walk the extra mile just to get the children into sports.

As a sporting parent, I’ve met many fathers who would try to make it to every game, but then I believe I can still count more mothers, who are always there for every game and every practice.

Maybe I just grew up in a different time and just like the other kids that I played with, our mothers were not there during practices and games.

Although they were not around, there was always that great home-cooked meal that greeted us when we head home sweaty and tired from all the action that we’ve been through.

I remember many years ago, I wrote in one of my columns that the reason why many promdi athletes do not last long in the national team is homesickness, because they miss their mother’s cooking and the comfort of home no matter how humble it may be.

There have been so many changes through the years and now mothers are not anymore the type who’d prefer to just stay home and wait or maybe focus on her career, but also to be at the sporting arena for the children.

If you happen to have visited the many sports clinics the past two months, you would most likely have seen many mothers waiting at the sidelines for the water breaks to offer drinks and maybe a towel to their young athletes.

I see many of these doting moms at the Don Bosco Technology Center during practices of the varsity teams and they are a very closely knit group just like the ones at Sacred Heart School-Jesuit where we used to practice with.

I see them in the junior golf programs, basketball clinics, and swimming lessons.  You see them gathered outside the dance hall or the gymnastics room of the Cebu City Sports Center.

This may sound like a belated Mothers’ Day tribute, but this is actually a tribute to my mother – Erma Lebumfacil Quiñones, who turned a year older yesterday.

We may not be sports superstars, but then there is always that mother’s pride that goes with every little achievement.

My mother is not like other moms who know much about sports, but she never failed to try to learn much about our new passions as she turned to reading the sports pages to know us a little more.

Many sporting moms are doing the same.  I hear some of them talk of football like they’ve been following the sport all their life, but they are just being doting moms who have gone out of their way to learn more about their children’s passion.

To all of you sporting moms, you are the light behind your little stars.  Keep the sporting flame burning.

* * *

Do you know that on May 27, 1975 Edson Arantes do Nascimento AKA Pele signed what was then the most lucrative contract in sports history?  The New York Cosmos agreed to pay him $7 million for a three-year North American Soccer League commitment.

Pele led Brazil to World Cup titles in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

Well his contract however looks like peanuts compared to the $250 million contract he signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer.  This amount however also includes other merchandising rights aside from his $27 M or so a year to play football.

* * *

MILESTONES: Belated birthday greetings to several people most especially my mother, who celebrated with her grandchildren yesterday. 

Belated greetings also go to my high school friends Jose Emilio Bolhano (May 27) and to Dr. Arthur Padilla (May 26).

More power to all of you!