Sporting Dads I

Father’s Day will be celebrated this weekend and I hope to come up with a series of columns dedicated to fatherhood.

One thing that I always envied was seeing fathers and sons in sporting venues and competitions. 

My father passed away when I was only seven years old and my fondest sporting memories were joining him at the recreation center of the old Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation in Sangi, Toledo City near the compound where we lived.

Although I never got to hit tennis balls against my father, those visits to the recreation center allowed me to watch him play and also gave me a chance to play with the children of other Atlas employees, who were also my schoolmates at the Andres Soriano Memorial School (ASMS).

It probably did not feel so bad when I was growing up and competing in various sporting events as parents during our time were not like us parents of today, who are there as our children’s biggest fans.

The sight of dads with cameras to record our moves on the field was a rarity and there were not many parents to watch games and practices.

As I grew older and decided to become a sportswriter for a living (yeah, sort of) I meet many fathers who had such a big impact on their children’s participation in a particular sport.

In an old album that I keep at home, I have a picture of me about 25 pounds lighter ago interviewing Eugenio ‘Jing-jing’ Faelnar, who I precisely remember was not yet Konsehal nor Kapitan Jing-jing then.

Before he was a politician, Jing-jing was a sporting dad and the biggest supporter of his sons Dino and Gene, who were competing in motocross.

Although I never had a chance to interview him before, Tony del Prado was one of my idol dads as he was always there to watch his son Anton, who at a very young age was the boy wonder of Taekwondo in Cebu. 

It was only many years later that I learned that Tony is not even a Taekwondo jin, but a runner, nevertheless the sight of a man being there for his son was something I wanted to do when my time would come.

I met many other fathers and sons in sports like Rudy and Gassy Lizares, who were always paired in the annual Coral Invitational at Cebu Country Club.

There were also coach Freddie and his son Woodrow in basketball and of course the Big J, Robert Jaworski, and son Dudut (Robert Jr.) in the Philippine Basketball Association.

Perhaps closest to me were Leonardo ‘Sir Baby’ Roa, Sr. and his sons Manuel ‘Gogo’, Leonardo Jr. ‘Jojo’, Andre and Tirso ‘Jinggoy’ who were into football and judo.

Sir Baby was into both sports and his sons followed his footsteps.  Gogo and Jojo were our coaches in judo while Jinggoy was a teammate in both the judo and football teams at UP Cebu.  Jojo was also once the top goalkeeper in Cebu before a knee injury sustained during a match.

My buddy Vicente Fernandez II is into judo just like his father Atty. Hector Ll. Fernandez, and yes Vic is a lawyer too.

Now, Vic’s children Vicente III ‘Nonoy’ and Joaquin are also judo champions.

In basketball you see so many sons of former stars following the footsteps of their fathers like former PBA star and Mandaue City Councilor Boy Cabahug, who took after his dad, Eduardo, who was once one of the top players of Cebu.

The list goes on, but I don’t have much space so we will continue this topic tomorrow.

As a sporting father, I get twice the fun.

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MILESTONES: Belated birthday greetings to my high school classmate Michelle P. So (June 7) and to Tita Martha Tuason of Y101 (June 8).

More power to both of you!