Summer clinics are here!

For those who been faithfully religious in their new year’s resolutions, the excitement is mounting as they can’t wait to flaunt those swimsuit-ready bodies and dare to strut and swagger on beaches, never mind if they really don’t know how to swim. 

The well-endowed beach bods continue to be the envy of the perpetual procrastinators who had ditched their resolutions before the first month of the year had ended.  With it comes a solemn vow to strictly devote more effort the following year.  Oh, yeah.

We’re in the sports pages so let’s not be talking about beaches and almost-bare bodies.  Let’s dwell on the different sporting clinics already planned, advertised and on-going. 

A multi-sport clinic has gained momentum and had the support of the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission and different professional and varsity coaches around Cebu.  Initiated last January by University of the Visayas chief scout and assistant coach Van Halen Parmis, it has generated thousands of enthusiastic future athletes at the Sisters of Mary Boystown in Minglanilla, Metro Cebu.

The charitable institution has a sprawling campus with a pool, a gymnasium and more than ten open basketball courts that accommodated more than 1,500 participants in the basketball, football and tennis clinics.  Lessons in swimming, athletics, badminton, sepak takraw, table tennis and volleyball were also held in separate tranches.

Rio Olympic marathoner Mary Joy Tabal and her coach Philip Duenas already lent and shared their knowledge to these aspiring athletes.  We should have more of Coach Parmis and the good people who share in his advocacy.

Most of the schools would have ended their classes by month’s end and next comes the cycle of sports clinics.  To have a long-term effect and sustainability, these clinics should have the support not only of individuals or entities but also of different LGUs.  Although the aim is noble, there is, in my opinion, an excess of basketball clinics where two or three are being held one after the other or in some cases, simultaneously.

By nature, our race is not vertically gifted yet I continue to be amazed with the nationwide infatuation and allegiance to a game suited for Shaq and other related species.  In fairness, these clinics had churned out players that did well, made their respective schools proud and some even represented the country in international competitions.  More sports should and must be identified.

It would be better for LGUs to institutionalize these clinics and have coaches for different sporting disciplines on a renewable quarterly contract to sustain trainings.  If only done during summer months, it will always start from lesson one.  Training needs development, development needs sustainability,sustainability needs support.

LGU support can be in the form of annual financial appropriation for sports development.  A local sports commission can be created under the office of Local Chief Executive.  With this in place, it will be easier to promote and encourage different sports beginning at the barangay level.  Likewise, with a yearly appropriation, sports equipment and facilities can have regular maintenance and upgrades.

Selected barangays can have their community covered courts as venues for training and have pocket tournaments where their best bets will then be pitted against the other barangays’ best.  They then move on to the municipal level.  From there, top performers go to the provincial, regionals and hopefully all the way to the nationals.  Depending on the LGU’s annual appropriation, incentives can be given to deserving athletes, trainers and coaches.

The commissioners at the Philippine Sports Commission are pushing for grassroots development and they are busy touring the countryside urging LGUs to focus on sports where their respective athletes can excel.  I doubt if PRRD was ever involved in some kind of athletic pursuits during his younger days but the Office of the President is very supportive of the programs initiated by the new guys at PSC.

Summer’s here and it’s time to change the landscape of Philippine sports.  The old farts at the POC had been lingering for quite a while and their smell had become vile.  With some strange medley, to our athletes they had become deadly.  Like the real thing, sometimes their actions don’t stink but when they do, it suffocates and leaves everyone with curious looks on their faces.

From wide open fields to confined spaces, farts will find us sooner or later.  And hey, if we’re all done with all these farts and clinics, let’s hit the beach and display that Coca-Cola body.  Yes, in cans, that is.