Rick Price has no place in team sports
BACK in high school, we had a couple of teammates we called Rick Price, not because of how well they sang but because of how valuable they thought they were to the team.
We’d always say a few lines of “Heaven Knows,” whenever one or two of them were up to their antics and would tell the coach that “they were too tired, too busy or too injured to practice,” while ordinary mortals like us were killing ourselves in the drills.
Now athletics is an individual sport but in the case of the Cviraa, it is a team game and it seems the Rick Price mentality has also affected some of the track stars of Cebu City.
ANS track coach Elberto Banzon, who I regularly saw at the CCSC track oval hard at work teaching track stars, told Sun.Star Cebu, “Sometimes it’s disappointing because we have good athletes but they don’t show up for training.”
Vice Mayor Joy Young wouldn’t have any of it and said they’d easily drop these “stars” with attitude problems.
Bravo! I hope Young goes through with that move because in a competition like the Cviraa, where Cebu City’s dominance has been unrivalled, how you perform in training is more important than how you perform during the competition.
For every gold medalist, there are two or three more who can take—and willingly so—his or her place in the team.
One thing about attitude problems is that these things are more difficult to correct than a flaw in technique; you can train out a technical “flaw,” but no amount of training will correct a mental flaw.
“We want to instill values and discipline in the kids but more importantly, we want them to value their education more,” said Young.
So to the Cebu City Rick Prices, only heaven knows where you will end up if you don’t change.
REACTIONS. Here are two of the comments generated by Dan Palami’s article on the U23’s campaign and his plans.
From Craig Burrows: “What an intelligent, humble but most of all enlightening article. Instead of buying a bulletproof vest, Dan exposes his soul. I just hope that all of us armchair critics will give him the time he needs and the respect he deserves to build the squad we all want to see.”
We’d always say a few lines of “Heaven Knows,” whenever one or two of them were up to their antics and would tell the coach that “they were too tired, too busy or too injured to practice,” while ordinary mortals like us were killing ourselves in the drills.
Now athletics is an individual sport but in the case of the Cviraa, it is a team game and it seems the Rick Price mentality has also affected some of the track stars of Cebu City.
ANS track coach Elberto Banzon, who I regularly saw at the CCSC track oval hard at work teaching track stars, told Sun.Star Cebu, “Sometimes it’s disappointing because we have good athletes but they don’t show up for training.”
Vice Mayor Joy Young wouldn’t have any of it and said they’d easily drop these “stars” with attitude problems.
Bravo! I hope Young goes through with that move because in a competition like the Cviraa, where Cebu City’s dominance has been unrivalled, how you perform in training is more important than how you perform during the competition.
For every gold medalist, there are two or three more who can take—and willingly so—his or her place in the team.
One thing about attitude problems is that these things are more difficult to correct than a flaw in technique; you can train out a technical “flaw,” but no amount of training will correct a mental flaw.
“We want to instill values and discipline in the kids but more importantly, we want them to value their education more,” said Young.
So to the Cebu City Rick Prices, only heaven knows where you will end up if you don’t change.
REACTIONS. Here are two of the comments generated by Dan Palami’s article on the U23’s campaign and his plans.
From Craig Burrows: “What an intelligent, humble but most of all enlightening article. Instead of buying a bulletproof vest, Dan exposes his soul. I just hope that all of us armchair critics will give him the time he needs and the respect he deserves to build the squad we all want to see.”
And from Erick, “I would like to think that you are the Mark Cuban of Philippine Football. But you’ve got to trim down the tummy, mate. We don’t want to lose you to hypertension this early. We need a good manager for the team, you know!”
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