Swimming to make big splash in 2013

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Swim League got a big boost in its grassroots development program when it was appointed national university sports association for colleges and universities by the Federation of School Sports Associations of the Philippines (FESSAP) last year.

The FESSAP is the country representative of the International Federation of Universities (FISU), which has the sole right to hold the biennial University Games or Universiade, the Olympics for schools and universities, with 166 member countries sending their best student players every two years.

Kazan, Russia is the next host of the Universiade slated July this year. The PSL started screening a national pool of swimmers through national trials last year and will soon put the selected swimmers on an intensive training program to form the national team.

The new development completes the structure of the PSL, which now has the full status of a national sports association mandated to promote the sport of swimming on the grassroots, club and school level and train national student athletes for international competition.

On the intermediate level, its mandate includes training young swimmers to become elementary, high school and university/college swimmers, thus giving serious swimmers, particularly the less privileged, a chance to gain swimming scholarships in some of the best schools here and even abroad.

Already, the PSL has been entrusted by the DepEd with the function of holding the swimming competitions of the Palarong Pambansa. The Private Schools Athletic Association had also invited the PSL to officiate its swimming competitions last year.

The PSL is thus on an even keel with its counterpart PhilSwimming, Inc. both as a national sports association affiliated with a national sports federation (FESSAP) and an international sports federation (FISU) and as a duly incorporated organization which has the juridical personality, like any other sports association, to engage in sports activities in the Philippines.

It doesn’t intend to rival PhilSwimming, which is a member of the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Olympic movement. The POC in turn is a member of the International Olympic Committee, which has the sole authority to hold the Olympic Games, the IOC affiliates – the Southeast Asian Games Federation Council which holds the Southeast Asian Games, and the Olympic Council Asia, which oversees the Asian Games.

While the PSL does not at the moment have the logistics to undertake a huge program, its president, Susan Papa, believes, the “journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”

It started by doing what it does best – train coaches and organize competitions. It organized the Philippine Swimming Coaches Association, providing the impetus for the expansion of a network of coaches, both in terms of quality and quantity, believing coaching is at the heart of an effective training program for young swimmers. The PSL itself boasts of a group of qualified coaches, certified by the World Swimming Coaches Association, who are ready to train students, on a temporary basis, upon request of schools until they hire a permanent coaching staff.

The PSL has volunteered its national coaches to train over 2,000 students under the school curriculum of the Diliman Preparatory School headed by former Sen. Nikki Coseteng. As part of its outreach program, the PSL had also trained street children housed in the Center for Community Transformation and trained out-of-school youth under the Champs for Joy program of Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte. Other schools on the grassroots level have been recipients of the PSLtraining program through the mayors, governors and congressmen and others in the local government units.

On the international level, clubs in the ASEAN invite the PSL to compete in their tournaments. In China, no less than the highest-ranked officials of the Chinese government have invited the PSL on a dual meet with Chinese swimmers in Fujian and Fushou last year.

The PSL’s Swim Circuit has already reached 36 legs, including monthly regional competitions, international age-group meets and national tryouts.

For the year it has scheduled local regional meets at Dasmariñas, Cavite this month, followed by competitions in Antipolo, Rizal, Quezon Province, Lipa, Legaspi, Davao City, Olongapo, Iba Zambales and Cagayan De Oro.

The PSL is looking forward to its international competitions in Hong Kong, China (Beijing and Shanghai), Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket), Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and its biggest event, the Universiade.

It has been invited to provide the basic framework for a sports secondary school, with swimming as its main sport, on a secluded mountain area in the Bicol region. The DPS and Bicol pilot projects could serve as models for schools seriously considering shifting to a sports secondary school program.

To help fund the various projects next year and beyond, a group of financiers had banded to form a foundation with the specific aim of providing financial support to the PSL. The foundation, which is the counterpart of the Philippine Sports Commission which supports NSAs under the POC, is due for incorporation this month.

Papa and Sen. Coseteng said the PSL had survived the birth pains as they completed the 2012 season, producing the initial batch of future champions who have already reached the AAAA American Motivational Standard for age groupers.

The PSL has installed a computerized ranking system to monitor the progress of each participant in the program, thanks to competitions and the help of a volunteer computer expert, PSL secretary general Susan Benasa.

As a relatively new national sports association – having emerged only three years ago – Papa said the PSL does not profess to be able to handle the big tasks of national training and grassroots development, much less produce Universiade gold medalists, overnight.

However, she believes nothing is impossible because its leaders have the passion for the sport, a passion for excellence, a dedication and commitment to serve and the stubborn will to succeed, to help Philippine swimming rise again.