Putting some kick in football
It was hot, and then there was the heat of the competition. A huge group of men and women had gathered to kick some ass on Playa Calatagan’s shores. Three intense matches were taking place in three football fields simultaneously. Everyone was getting the game on but they were doing it for fun. The 2nd Rudy Project Beach Football/Playa Calatagan Cup, after all, is all about having some good sports-active summer fun.
“This is more of a fun thing,” says project/tournament director Hans-Peter Vans Sprew Smit. Hans is a big man, much respected and feared in the world of football. So if he says you better be playing for fun, you better follow. Play a bit too rough and he’s going to call on you. No professional player in Philippine football wants this man calling on them.
Hans has been a football commissioner and coach most of his life. And if there’s one thing he truly believes in, it is that in football, women can definitely kick ass. “I was never a sexist. Whatever men can do, women can do. Sometimes, better,” he says.
Hans is currently the head coach of the Philippine Women’s National Team as well as the National Championship’s head coach for the women and girls selection of the National Capital Region Football Association. He is the current head coach of De La Salle University’s men and women’s football teams, a title he has held since 1987. He’s been head coach of De La Salle Zobel’s U-18, U-16, and U-14 football teams since 1981. He was a trainer for the Philippine National Football Team at the 1989 SEA Games in Malaysia and has regularly coached at the Barcelona Cup and Costa Blanca Cup in Spain, the Gothia Cup in Sweden and the Football Festival Denmark in Aarhus, Denmark.
“The beauty of the game is it’s exciting,” says coach Hans as he looks out onto the three fields where three beach football matches are happening side by side.
This coach has four kids, two of them playing on the sand court at that moment. The only thing he regrets is that he started playing football when he was already 11. He wishes he’d known about football at 3.
Hans likes to teach kids, no matter how small or big they are. For him, any football is good football. And playing it once again on the shores of Playa Calatagan makes it that much more interesting and fun.
That day in Playa Calatagan was definitely filled with a lot of football excitement and fun. Matches between various men and women teams took place from morning till afternoon. Among those who took to the beach football field that day were men and women teams like DLSU, UST, Los Baños FC, Nasugbu FC, Alabang Grins FC, UPLB, KAVETS FC, KAYA FC, Sta. Rosa FC, South Sol FC, Masbateno FC, ROTS FC, KAYA-V FC, La Salle Alumni and Manila Japanese FC.
Winning teams like 1st placers Manila Japanese FC for the men’s division and DLSU-A for the women’s, along with winning players like men’s MVP Rikuhisa Fujihara and women’s MVP Jessica Ryon, received cash, gear and other goodies from Playa Calatagan Cup sponsors such as Rudy Project, Mazda, RMN Networks, Rexona for Men by Unilever, Shakey’s Pizza, Puma, Gatorade, Krispy Kreme, GNC, and Stoked.
Meanwhile, Playa Calatagan’s marketing director CJ Domingo-Roque may not be sweating it out on the sand court that day, but he sure knows someone who used to — his father. CJ’s dad used to play center forward for the Philippine National Team. And looking at the Football Cup’s eager young players, he has high hopes that this football cup will stay in Playa Calatagan in the years to come.
“Organizers say that Calatagan is the perfect venue to hold an event like this. We hope that it can be an annual event and that it can become bigger,” CJ explains.
After all, no other shoreline is sizable enough to fit three beach football fields. And no other shoreline can be more fun and exciting to visit in the summer.
All of 74 hectares, Playa Calatagan is a leisure tourism estate set to launch the first phase of its development within the year. For now, its beach clubhouse with a swimming pool, various Jacuzzis, and lounging areas is a popular hang-out. Pretty soon, Playa Calatagan is also be opening a three-storey Main Street Hotel. With 68 rooms, this hotel boasts various dining outlets and shops on its ground floor.
Playa Calatagan invites families to be part of its residential enclave. The houses feature the tropical Filipino home vision of architect Noel Saratan. The living room area features big glass windows with a panoramic view of the South China Sea and Calatagan mountains. There’s a plunge pool where homeowners and their guests can relax and even have a little pool party.
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For more information, visit www.playacalatagan.com.
