Community and elite sports

Last week we attended a broad spectrum of sporting activities: from community to elite sports. It had happened to me several times in the past when sports activities coincidentally converged at the same day and hour thus causing a so-called collision of appointments and leaving us pleasantly exhausted.

At any rate, early Saturday morning, we were at the Philippine Columbian Association (PCA) indoor courts in Paco for the opening ceremonies of the Second Tennista Invitational Team Tournament 2011. Tennista is a club organized by tennis lovers in February 2010 to campaign for then Senator Benigno S. Aquino III. It was then known as “Tennistas for Noynoy Aquino” and members of the club went all over Metro Manila and nearby towns to play tennis with other tennis enthusiasts and to recruit members for its cause: the victory of Noynoy Aquino.

With the elections over and victory achieved through the election of Noynoy Aquino as the 15th President of the Republic, the group decided to shed the political color inherent in such a tag and to move forward in developing camaraderie through tennis tournaments. The Second Invitational was one such initiative.

I was invited as guest speaker, an invitation which conflicted with a cycling tournament in Carmona, Cavite. We had to skip the latter for a number of reasons, among them, the then ongoing ICTSI 95th Philippine Open (2011) at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club (WWGCC).

In our remarks at the PCA, the president of which was our co-professor at the De La Salle University Graduate School of Business, Dodie Caniza, we stressed that community sports, sports in the barangays, and recreational clubs was the foundation of any solid and serious sports development program. When people, who are way past their youth, empower themselves to organize for wellness and recreation as a demonstration of their life-long commitment to sports, the development work of sports administrators is thus facilitated by such a proactive approach. It also helps cut down the national health bill.

Tennista which was initially organized by Rina Caniza and a number of other tennis buffs, worked hard to attract more than 12 teams to the two-day Second Invitational. Among the other officers of Tennista and tournament officials are: Jess Capulong, Alex Nakpil, Mayor Jess Burahan , Jun Frias, Anne de la Peña, Odette Asperin, Ernie Punzalan, Noel Iglesias, Babe Gregorio, Larry Olaya, Chito Estanislao, Fiscal Freddie Gomez and Boy Santos.

In the afternoon, we went to the WWGCC to check on the Philippine Open to support and encourage the Asian Tour group, WWGCC director Pablo Soon, general manager Pancho Legarda, Grounds Committee chairman Virgilio Co and the hundreds of others involved in ensuring the ICTSI-sponsored event was professionally and efficiently run.

Saturday evening, we joined boxing’s eight-division champion, Manny Pacquiao and his family at a private dinner tendered by the Tiengs (William, Wilson and Willie) and Peter Chanliong of Solar at the New Vogue at the New World in Makati.

As we were having dinner, the replay of the Pacquaio-Shane Mosley fight was being shown. Pacquiao was watching while his youngest child, daughter Queen Elizabeth (Queenie), was seated on his lap and playfully kissing the boxing icon. Upon seeing the television monitor and her Daddy on the screen about to slug it out with Mosley, the two and a half Queenie exclaimed, to everyone’s amusement, “Good luck Daddy!”

One topic over dinner was Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED). As we got into PED’s, I recalled Freddie Roach whispering to me over dinner at the home of sportsman-businessman Nene Araneta in mid-December last year after Pacquiao demolished Antonio Margarito, that, “except for Manny, all of these (top-rated) boxers do take PED’s.” 

Sunday, we were back at the WWGCC to watch the thrilling battle between eventual winner Berry Henson of the US and runner-up Jay Bayron of the Philippines. Henson, the 32-year old rookie of the Asian Tour calmly sank three-foot putt for par in the 18th hole of the refurbished 7,222-yard WWGCC East Course to win the $47,550 top prize.

It was a tiring but pleasant weekend. As we ended the day, we recalled the words of former US President Teddy Roosevelt quoted by David Zirin in the book, “Sport in Contemporary Society”.

Roosevelt argued that organized athletics could be the means for instilling the character and values necessary to make America a global power in the century to come. Sports could breed a sense of hard work, self-discipline, and the win-at-all-cost ethic of competition: “Virile, masterful qualities alone can maintain and defend this very civilization. There is no better way (to develop this) than by encouraging the sports which develop such qualities as courage, resolution, and endurance. No people has ever yet done great and lasting work if its physical type was weak and infirm.”