The heat is still on

The smoke on the cluster eliminations have cleared but a bigger battle still looms for the 2010 GUV Cup Volleyball championships. Twelve qualifiers in the men and women's division will go for the kill beginning Monday, December 13 at the CICC.

Men and women were separated from the boys and girls during the eliminations and quite obviously, talent and experience ruled in the qualifying rounds.

Last weekend's games at Liloan was well attended, specially the championship matches. There was some kind of a fracas in the last game that resulted from a missed call but otherwise, the games were great. Game officials make judgment calls and sometimes, it doesn't go our way. That's the hard, cruel fact. We win some, we lose some.

The lesser teams stumbled to the better teams. But good or bad teams, the league succeeded in bringing to far-flung areas, high-caliber volleyball action and exceptional organization. Athletic scholarships were also awarded to players who have shown exceptional talents and from our place, at least four of them are with the city's different universities playing for their men and women's varsity teams.

I just hope that whoever sits next at the provincial government's throne will continue what Gov. Gwen Garcia has started and has made of Cebu volleyball. 

Of course, it is with CEVA's unwavering support and cooperation. I won't be mentioning names. You guys know who you are. Keep it up.

So people, see you at the CICC beginning Monday morning.

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Talking about heat, Miami seems to have gone cold with their 10-8 record, not exactly superior stats considering the ridiculous talent on their roster.   But it's still early in the season and by the All-Star break, they could have regrouped. 

Same holds true with the Lakers who had their fifth consecutive loss.

I say Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom are worn out this early, and Kobe, as always, is shooting too much. Now that the ancient Theo Ratliff is on the injury list, the best thing the Lakers could do is trade Andrew Bynum and Sasha Vujacic for the much needed help in the middle. Vujacic is out of the rotation with Matt Barnes and Steve Blake showing good numbers.

There's no point in waiting for Bynum's return, which had been reset, again, for several weeks. He was supposed to be in active duty by now, as per previous reports.

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There is an on-going survey on this paper as to which is the better tourism slogan, the old "Wow! Philippines!" or the new one which I rather would not glorify. The previous has done well, so why fix it when it's not broken, as the saying goes. Our Asian neighbors have one-word wonders, in English, to describe their places and it brings in the tourists. "Amazing Thailand", "Incredible India" to name two and the three-worded "Malaysia, Truly Asia."

We were introduced to the English language in 1762 not by the Americans but by British invaders and we pride ourselves as the world's third largest English-speaking nation next to the US and the UK. Then here we come promoting our country in a slogan so mouthful and so alien to tourist they can't even say or pronounce. Yeah, we change things for several million reasons, like the reported amount spent just for the slogan's case study.

WOW! PHILIPPINES! Let it stay. Let's speak Tagalog, Bisaya, Ilonggo or whatever to ourselves. We speak English to visitors and tourists when we promote our country. 

Nuff said.

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