Sports development

Filipino-American actor Sam Milby’s sister is coaching the Philippines’ women’s rugby football team.

Did that grab your attention? Ada Milby, who has the same Pinoy movie star good looks as her younger brother, is also an ex-soldier in the US Army, working for two years from 2004 with a logistics unit in Iraq.

I told Ada the other night that her brother’s star power plus her unique story could boost Pinoy interest in rugby and – more importantly for the development of any sport in this country – raise much-needed funding.

Ada spoke at a reception to promote rugby in the Philippines, hosted by its biggest booster, the New Zealand embassy and its rugby-playing ambassador, Reuben Levermore.

I’ve told the ambassador that one of the hurdles to overcome if rugby is to gain mass appeal here is an image problem: our sports desk told me that like polo, rugby is seen as a sport of Forbes Park denizens.

Sure enough, among the guests at the Kiwi reception (in North Forbes Park) was industrialist Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, whose nephew Jaime Urquijo plays for the Philippine national rugby union team, the Volcanoes.

The Kiwis and their kindred brethren from the British Commonwealth, however, are promoting rugby at the grassroots, among some of the most underprivileged sectors in the Philippines. For this endeavor, it is providential to have wealthy patrons like the Zobel de Ayalas; JAZA is reportedly a big rugby fan.

The reception the other night opened with haka, the testosterone-packed traditional Maori war dance of New Zealand, performed by young wards of the Tuloy orphanage run by Don Bosco in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

This was matched by the visiting members of the International Rugby Academy of New Zealand with their own haka performance.

A rugby program called “Sibol” has been launched by the Philippine Rugby Football Union Inc. where Ada has been head of development for two years now. Since January alone, the group has trained 1,000 youths and has taken the sport to Marikina, Calamba in Laguna, Bulacan and Davao City.

Ada, 30, learned to love the sport when she was a student in Ohio, where she initially played American football. Rugby is a rough sport, played without pads, but Ada sees no danger for women and children and says part of the training is how to prevent injuries while playing.

Sibol is the biggest sponsorship program in the world of New Zealand’s All Blacks national team, whose former captain Murray Mexted was at the Kiwi reception.

Volcano players are mostly Filipinos of mixed descent. Rugby union rules also allow non-Filipinos who have lived here for at least three consecutive years to play for our national team.

Ada thinks the Volcanoes have a good chance of winning in the upcoming Asian 5 Nations tournament. From April 26 to May 24, the Volcanoes will face off with teams from Hong Kong, Japan, Sri Lanka and South Korea. Last year, the Philippines beat the United Arab Emirates to remain in the premier division for 2014. The Asian 5 will be the qualifying tournament for the Rugby World Cup 2015.

Rugby training teaches players unity, solidarity, teamwork and respect, says Ada, who hopes rugby will be “a sport for Filipinos, played by Filipinos.”

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Besides show biz endorsement, the best boost for any sport in this country is victory in international competitions.

Consider the nation’s jubilation when Michael Christian Martinez qualified for the finals at the recent XXII Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The Muntinlupa resident placed 19th, a long way from number one, but that didn’t diminish the amazement over a 17-year-old from tropical Philippines skating on ice and making it to the finals in the Winter Olympics. It was a first not just for the country but for all of Southeast Asia.

Now the faux ice rinks of the SM Malls are becoming more crowded as Pinoys realize that figure skating is one activity where the country can hope for Olympic glory.

Martinez’s feat might also kindle interest in developing gymnasts from an early age for competition in the Olympics. This is one area where the light frame of an average Pinoy can be an asset.

Sports development is best started in childhood. Governments elsewhere pour substantial resources into searching for promising athletes in grade schools and developing them for international competition.

In our case, budding athletes are left mostly to their own resources. Manny Pacquiao does not owe his phenomenal success in pro boxing to government support.

Martinez, because of his feat in Sochi, now has product endorsements and other financial support for his training abroad, which is expensive.

Ada Milby told me the Philippine rugby program has received a lot of support from the Philippine Sports Commission, no kidding, but she concedes that funding is always a problem.

Victory in the Asian 5 Nations tournament can earn more funding for rugby development. But support is not supposed to come after victory. If we want to develop world-class athletes who can reap glory for the nation, we have to start making serious investments in sports development. And that goes not only for figure skating and rugby.