Great year for grassroots swimming in 2012

MANILA, Philippines - If there’s an association that merits a national award for grassroots development in swimming, it won’t be the national sports association, PhilSwimming, which draws funds from the government for its national training program, but an ordinary club that does its job in the countryside with no assistance from the government and private sector.

The Philippine Swimming League, founded by former Olympian Susan Papa, became a byword in Philippine swimming not with its participation in international competitions like the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games and Olympics but with its regular monthly age group competitions, interspersed with international interclub participation in Southeast Asia in the last five years.

From its inception, the PSL had conducted 36 monthly competitions, participated in nationwide by over 14,000 young swimmers, from age 5 to 17, with an average of 400 per leg.

To make participation easy on the pocket of cost-conscious parents, the PSL’s exacts entry fees just enough to cover the costs of medals, rentals and officials’ honoraria.

The PSL waves fees for outstanding swimmers as well as public school students. Whenever needed, parents themselves contribute for the medals while coaches render voluntary services to cut down on costs. Whatever is left after operating costs goes to a fund that sends the best swimmers and one or two coaches on an all-expense-paid trip to international meets in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Brunei and Australia where young swimmers get exposed this early to international rivalry.

Papa draws out-of-pocket expenses from the Susan Papa Swimming Academy.

The PSL Swim Series has reached as far as Cagayan de Oro and Davao in the South and Baguio in the North. Along the way, it has discovered fresh talents, many of whom surprisingly haven’t had the chance of formal training in a 25-meter or 50-meter pool.

Because of the big reception the program gets from the various regions, the PSL has caught the attention of government as well as private institutions which wanted to get their constituents hooked on a low-cost but no-nonsense swimming program.

One of the new converts to swimming was former Sen. Nikki Coseteng, who saw the wisdom of including the sport in the school curriculum of her school, the Diliman Preparatory School, of which she is president and chief executive officer.

Sen. Coseteng, known as a sports activist for her vocal protests in Philippine sports, is actually a sports advocate who believes that sports should be viewed as an economic necessity, not a luxury for Filipinos, particularly the poor.

Her active role in the PSL gave the organization the influence and the clout and the public trust it now enjoys.

An old-time partner, Atty. Ma. Luz Arzaga-Mendoza, a former national swimmer and sister of a Fil-Canadian coach who has established himself as a national coach and swimming lecturer in Canada, strengthened the organizational and legal structure of the PSL.

Mendoza has advocated more government participation in sports – not just assume the role of funding agency – since this is mandated by the Philippine Constitution. She says the government must make sports an economic imperative because it is mandated to do so by the Constitution.

The PSL introduced the concept of local government cooperation in grassroots development during the last two years, starting with cities that already have swimming facilities.

A routine strategy of the PSL is to pay a courtesy call on the city mayor or provincial governor to get approval of their request for the use of the city swimming pool for the PSL competition. A short request usually comes with a discussion of a swimming program of the city, with the PSL coming in as organizer of swimming competitions. During these competitions it would take the opportunity to train local coaches, organize a full-time club, and choose a regional director.

Among the local government executives that have joined the program are Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos, Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn and more recently, Zambales Rep. Jun Ebdane.

Hagedorn is one of local officials who have pioneered in sports tourism and is not only using the natural wonders of Palawan to draw tourists but is also encouraging the staging of sports events, local and international, in these natural playgrounds.

(To be continued)