Ricablanca joins CCSC as sports commissioner

CEBU, Philippines - The dynamic athletic director of the University of Cebu (UC), Bernard Ricablanca, has been appointed as a new commissioner of the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC).

The new position served as a fitting gift to Ricablanca who will be turning 47 on January 13, at the same time a new challenge for him as he will now be serving the Queen City of the South.

When the appointment was given to him by CCSC chairman Edward Hayco, Ricablanca first declined the appointment because he is currently serving a private entity and he believes that there are other better people who deserved the position.

But when he was told that the appointment was already signed by Mayor Michael Rama and his superiors, Atty. Augusto Go and Candice Gotianuy, gave him a go signal for the position, he finally accepted it.

“It’s a hard work considering that I am now serving the city. I’m having the pleasure of serving the city before as an athletic director and now as a commissioner. I hope I can put up everything into the work,” said Ricablanca.

He will join commissioners Ryan Aznar, Tony del Prado, Bryan Lim, and Nimrod NL Quiñones as private sector representative.

As a commissioner one of the plans of Ricablanca is to develop the athletes in a more competitive way through school-based and grassroots program.

Since he is well-acquainted with school-based sports training, he would try his best to help the school-based athletes be given the chance to be developed.

CCSC plans

The CCSC plans to accomplish in the first half of the year, the maximized promotion of the grassroots program with focus on the out-of-school youth, which will start on January 23.

Ricablanca said that he can serve the commission well by letting his athletes join in promoting the grassroots program by being mentors of these young kids and adults in the different sporting events.

January 21-22, 2012 will be another date to remember as the Queen City of the South will once again make history with the ambitious project of CCSC in breaking the Guinness World Record for the “World’s Largest Chess Tournament” (Board Game) set by Russia.

 CCSC along with the Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu City have already gathered more than 40,000 participants from over a hundred schools in the city who went through classroom-based and school-wide based tournament in the previous months.

This April, CCSC will conduct a Summer Sports Program wherein they are planning to double the number of participation to 20,000 this year.  (FREEMAN)