Fair Play: For the good of the sport
A Junior NBA coach is set to announce a program today that will help local coaches in training their players. Yipee! Yahoo! Boring. Zzzzzz.
I don’t think Philippine basketball need more technical help, or NBA-caliber advice, no offense to Mr. Frank Lopez. What Philippine basketball really needs is advice and a whole lot of seminar on how to run an honest to goodness organization, minus all the politics.
People who run basketball in the country always say the same thing, “they are after the growth of the sport,” yet, what do they do?
Until now, the leadership issue of the national sport association (NSA) for basketball hasn’t been resolved and the two groups are doing their talking in the courts. I don’t even know what name to call the NSA. Butch Pichay’s faction calls itself the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas-Basketball Association of the Philippines, while Manny V. Pangilinan’s wing is simply the SBP. To make matters worse, there is still that old standby, BAP.
And as if things aren’t muddy already, MVP has mirrored Pichay. The politician also heads the chess NSA and MVP’s group has decided to take over the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines. Whew! I just hope basketball’s “unity” won’t wreck havoc to boxing.
And it’s not only the basketball NSA that is facing leadership issues. We have swimming, billiards, badminton, and even wrestling. I only learned the Philippines had an NSA for wrestling when I read in the news that the group was—what do you expect—facing threats of another set of officers running a parallel organization.
If hair pulling was a sport, and someone creates an NSA for it, three years from now, the Hair Pulling NSA will be…Aw crap.
Take billiards for example. We have all heard of Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante but not everybody has heard of the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP).
But what’s happening now? Because of all the infighting in billiards, the BSCP is threatening, of all things, to ban Reyes, Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan, Ronato Alcano and a whole lot of RP’s heavyweight in pool from participating in the World Pool Association 9-Ball Championships, the same event that Reyes won in 1999 (and Pagulayan in 2004 and Alcano in 2006) that spurred the popularity of the sport in the country.
Of course, everything they do is for the good of the sport.
REACTIONS. My piece on the DepEd Horror Stories evoked memories from a reader now based in Japan. Gerald Mecaydor (geyat@yahoo.com) wrote:
“I agree with you sir… I was also a football player in Cebu before. I think game scheds should be managed well by the DepEd especially for football. I am currently based in Japan, I asked some players here about the correct scheduling in this age bracket--their opinion is, three days to one week is enough for “healthy” preparation for a full 11-a-side game…During my time, (95 or 96 SocSarGen Palarong Pambansa) we lost to Western Visayas in the Finals via penalty shootout, we played three straight games (against ARMM, Southern Tagalog, NCR) the day before that. I remember it was just a 15-minute break before the third game started! Needless to say, we lost almost half of our team due to injuries. Not so cool for a golf driving range turned football field in a 35-degree temp average!
To force DepEd to change its ways, a reader suggested that a dehydration or heat stroke victim to sue them, but here’s what I think:
It took two deaths before DepEd changed its schedule of the opening parade to a healthier time and as long as no footballer drops dead from playing three straight games, officials won’t bother changing the schedule. They don’t care about the athletes, what they care is their “wonderful experience in Dos Palmas.”
It’s all for the good of the sport.
(mikelimpag@gmail.com, www.football.cebunetwork.com)
I don’t think Philippine basketball need more technical help, or NBA-caliber advice, no offense to Mr. Frank Lopez. What Philippine basketball really needs is advice and a whole lot of seminar on how to run an honest to goodness organization, minus all the politics.
People who run basketball in the country always say the same thing, “they are after the growth of the sport,” yet, what do they do?
Until now, the leadership issue of the national sport association (NSA) for basketball hasn’t been resolved and the two groups are doing their talking in the courts. I don’t even know what name to call the NSA. Butch Pichay’s faction calls itself the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas-Basketball Association of the Philippines, while Manny V. Pangilinan’s wing is simply the SBP. To make matters worse, there is still that old standby, BAP.
And as if things aren’t muddy already, MVP has mirrored Pichay. The politician also heads the chess NSA and MVP’s group has decided to take over the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines. Whew! I just hope basketball’s “unity” won’t wreck havoc to boxing.
And it’s not only the basketball NSA that is facing leadership issues. We have swimming, billiards, badminton, and even wrestling. I only learned the Philippines had an NSA for wrestling when I read in the news that the group was—what do you expect—facing threats of another set of officers running a parallel organization.
If hair pulling was a sport, and someone creates an NSA for it, three years from now, the Hair Pulling NSA will be…Aw crap.
Take billiards for example. We have all heard of Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante but not everybody has heard of the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP).
But what’s happening now? Because of all the infighting in billiards, the BSCP is threatening, of all things, to ban Reyes, Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan, Ronato Alcano and a whole lot of RP’s heavyweight in pool from participating in the World Pool Association 9-Ball Championships, the same event that Reyes won in 1999 (and Pagulayan in 2004 and Alcano in 2006) that spurred the popularity of the sport in the country.
Of course, everything they do is for the good of the sport.
REACTIONS. My piece on the DepEd Horror Stories evoked memories from a reader now based in Japan. Gerald Mecaydor (geyat@yahoo.com) wrote:
“I agree with you sir… I was also a football player in Cebu before. I think game scheds should be managed well by the DepEd especially for football. I am currently based in Japan, I asked some players here about the correct scheduling in this age bracket--their opinion is, three days to one week is enough for “healthy” preparation for a full 11-a-side game…During my time, (95 or 96 SocSarGen Palarong Pambansa) we lost to Western Visayas in the Finals via penalty shootout, we played three straight games (against ARMM, Southern Tagalog, NCR) the day before that. I remember it was just a 15-minute break before the third game started! Needless to say, we lost almost half of our team due to injuries. Not so cool for a golf driving range turned football field in a 35-degree temp average!
To force DepEd to change its ways, a reader suggested that a dehydration or heat stroke victim to sue them, but here’s what I think:
It took two deaths before DepEd changed its schedule of the opening parade to a healthier time and as long as no footballer drops dead from playing three straight games, officials won’t bother changing the schedule. They don’t care about the athletes, what they care is their “wonderful experience in Dos Palmas.”
It’s all for the good of the sport.
(mikelimpag@gmail.com, www.football.cebunetwork.com)
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