Cebu Provincial Sports Commission & MLO

Two developments in the world of Cebu sports highlighted the past week in what could be a good new “bad news” scenario. Did you notice anything at all in the papers? The first major development/concern was the announcement that the Milo Little Olympics of “MLO” won’t be returning to Cebu in 2015. That was the bad news. Iloilo will now serve as host this year, as part of the drive of Milo to spread its reach and influence. But this isn’t true only for the Visayas. The Mindanao edition will also shift from Cagayan de Oro to Tagum while the Luzon Regionals will transfer from Pangasinan to Baguio. But we also have good news even if it’s not as loud as the bad news. The other major development was the establishment of the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission led by its Chairman sportsman Michel Lhuillier and Vice Chairman Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba. Any relationship between the two?

Offhand, I can’t help but pray that the departure of the MLO will also mean the rise of a comprehensive sports program of the Cebu Province that could possibly include an annual Olympics style event that could replace the MLO. We can then eventually say in the near future, “Who needs the MLO? Ilaha na lang na.”  For a long time now, we all know that Cebu is haven of sports talents from Daanbantayan to Santander. The main problem has been the absence of a comprehensive sports program that will discover these talents, nurture then, train them and have them compete in a regular calendar of activities. Today, we have the DEPED network of sports competitions that lead to the CVIRAA and eventually the Palarong Pambansa. Scattered are other privately-initiated sports fests or competitions that are limited to towns that are pro-active and sports-friendly. But with the setting up of the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission (let’s give them a nickname:“CPSC”), we pray that we’ll see a change of scenery in the province’s sports world. Pardon the unsolicited advice here. Consider me a concerned citizen/tax payer from Liloan, a town that is part of the Cebu Province. Ergo, this should give me gives me a venue to give mytwo cents worth. Like it or not, I’m going all out to push for this from the CPSC.

The program should have the following components which are easy to setup. First, a geographical structure that will serve as the backbone of all sports activities. With the different congressional districts already in place, this is a given. Next up is a need to have a set of committed and loyal sportsmen as leaders of each city, town or municipality. Then there’s a need for basic sports infrastructure through multi-purpose facilities, gyms, sports fields, swimming pools and track and field ovals. Each local government unit or LGU must then establish its own sports offices, complete with managers, coaches and trainers. When this is set up, there’s a need to train the trainors. Let’s help the teachers and coaches first before they can even attempt to teach kids how to play. Makes sense, di ba? We then train the kid show to play through regular clinics and practice. Included here are tune-up or practice games. And then let’s make the kids play the games that they love.

Note that I’m mentioning kids here. Forget the “old” guys. Let’s start with the kids 15 years old and below. Using the geographical set-up, we can have local competitions at the town level featuring either an inter-barangay or inter-school set-up. From here, towns can form its team that will compete at the district level (using the congressional set-up). The best of the district then clash with the best of the other districts in a province-wide competition featuring the province’s six districts (sounds like Hunger Games here). At the end of the program of competitions, we have now discovered the best youth athletes of Cebu coming all the way from the grassroots level. And this can be done not only for the popular sports like basketball, volleyball and football. Also in the loop are athletics (track and field), tennis, baseball, taekwondo, table tennis, gymnastics and more.

Let’s do this every year starting in 2015. By the year 2020, Cebu will be a tough team to beat in the sports world. Do you now miss the MLO? Let’s do this!

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Time-out: Kudos to our Liloan Mayor Duke Frasco on his TOYM award. I hope he can now work on the traffic situation in Kapulay and areas in Yati where the roadside has suddenly become a parking lot for cars near schools.