CVIRAA 2017

It’s that time once again for the biggest sports event of the school-year, the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association or CVIRAA. This kicks off today in Naga and brings together the top high school and elementary student-athletes from the region. The CVIRAA is the regional qualifier for the Palarong Pambansa with the winners qualifying for the Palaro. The different teams that have gathered in Naga are the various divisions of the Department of Education. These are Cebu Province, Mandaue City, Bogo City, Bohol Province, Cebu City, Tagbilaran City, Carcar City, Lapu-lapu City, Siquijor, Toledo City, Danao City and Talisay City. Events on tap are archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, chess, football, gymnastics, goal ball, sepak takraw, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, wushu, wrestling, tennis, volleyball, billiard, futsal and bocce. When it all ends on Friday, a CVIRAA team will be formed for the Palaro, fusing all these divisions into one team for Central Visayas.

The one biggest plus of the CVIRAA is that it provides the region’s top athletes the opportunity to compete in an Olympic-type event: multiple sports gathering thousands of athletes in just one event. The over-all champion is determined via the medal count system. The team with the most number of gold medals is declared the CVIRAA champion. It’s already a foregone conclusion that Cebu City will come out on top of the lot with the rest battling for second place over-all. Cebu City hosts the most number of schools and the top student-athletes in both the elementary and high school levels. They are favorites to win just about every event. So the big question is which event they won’t win. The peculiar thing about Olympic-type events like these is that one can win more gold medals not in the more popular team sports but in the sports with many individual events. Team sports like basketball, football, baseball, volleyball and futsal will give just one gold medal to the winner, a silver to the runner-up and the bronze to the third placer. However, sports with individual events can give ten to twenty times more medals. Athletics and swimming have several events under its field and give out gold medals per event. A gold in the 100-meter dash of athletics (track and field) or the 100-meter freestyle in swimming is equivalent to the gold medal won in basketball or volleyball. And both athletics and swimming have more events for more gold medals for all to fight for. This is when the popular team sports take a back seat to the lesser popular but medal-rich sports.

Why is this important? We as a CVIRAA have always wanted to improve our over-all standing in the Palarong Pambansa. Looking at the bigger picture, we as a country have also always desired to win the elusive Olympic gold medal or win more golds at the Asian Games or Southeast Asian Games. The ironic point here is that the answer for our quest is pretty obvious: work on individual sports. Remember Hidilyn Diaz’s silver medal at the Rio Olympics? Weightlifting is an individual event that offers multiple medals in different weight levels. The same is true for boxing where we’ve won a silver and a bronze in previous Olympics. So what are we doing as a region for individual events? Are we giving these events more focus? Are we providing support for the training of these athletes? Are we training the coaches for these events? Are we identifying the top athletes of these events even before a CVIRAA takes place? Are we providing the facilities needed for these events? It can’t be denied that due to the popularity of basketball, football and volleyball, the individual events somehow get lesser attention. These events have more than enough attention from all sides: training, facilities, coaches and more.

I’d like to see the CVIRAA not as a group different divisions fighting for the over-all championship and bragging rights. That’s already in the bag for Cebu City. For a change, I’d like to see our DEPED officials train their eyes on all the individual events that could help CVIRAA improve its medal haul at the Palaro. And I mean “tutok.” Keep a close eye on those medal-rich events like athletics, swimming, gymnastics, archery, boxing, etc. Identify the athletes, recognize them, give them a genuine training program between now and the Palaro, give them extra tender loving care, and make them feel important. You’ll see what two months of hard work will do when they compete at the Palaro. These events may be not as popular as basketball and volleyball, but these are CVIRAA’s ticket to a better performance at the Palaro.

And while they’re at it and I hope it isn’t too late, I hope the CVIRAA can also improve its level of officiating. Let’s get rid of the excuse that since they’re teachers, they don’t know how to officiate. Let’s reverse it. Since they’re all teachers, they’re more qualified than anyone else. But this also demands training, exposure to officiating in many events and a regular “sharpening of the saw” with the goal to improve one’s craft. Isn’t it funny that officiating is also an “individual sport” in a sense? Improving oneself as an official will also lead to better officiated games and a better level of play from the athletes.

Good luck to the CVIRAA. May we discover the best individual athletes and make them our golden ticket to the Palaro.