Fair Play: Cheating in Cebu City Olympics

THANKS to the diligence of the screening committee, a coach was caught fielding ineligible players in the baseball competition of the Cebu City Olympics.

The team was disqualified, while the coach?  Well, he's going to have to wait for a fact-finding committee's recommendations to learn what his fate would be.



But I hope it won’t be a slap on the wrist.

This is a slap on DepEd Cebu’s face, would they just look the other way?

I've been told that coaches resort to this because they want to win, not because they want to have the glory of being champions but because they want to earn promotion points that goes with being a champion.

So, how should the Department of Education counter this?

As the vanguard of education--and morals--of the youth, this is an embarrassment for DepEd.  A team in a DepED meet caught cheating?

This is an embarrassment for the school and the district.

Teachers and coaches are supposed to set the right example, not break the rules.

But because of the latest incident, Gothong National High School won't be only known for its excellent archers that topped the Cebu City Olympics but also for its baseball team that fielded three over-aged players.


I wonder, what would the principal of Gothong think when he or she faces the students today? Would the principal be proud of what their Archers have achieved?  Would he or she be ashamed of what their baseball team did?

Baseball, cheating, DepED.  This is a sad refrain that keeps repeating.

Didn't we lose the Little League World Series title because we fielded a bunch of cheats?  Sure, it wasn't a DepEd meet but the local elims of that tournament started with school teams.

And who could forget about that expose back in the 2008 Palarong Pambansa? When a coach was caught fielding a college freshman in elementary division?  Yep a freakin' college freshman competing with pre-pubescent boys.

And now this?

And what's worse, it seems to be a tradition.

“Usahay mao na ang style sa uban coaches, they submit their complete credentials on the day of the tournament, hoping that  table officials scrutinize them but that didnt happened today,” baseball tournament director Engr. Dionisio Guisado said.

Thanks to the table officials, the players were caught.  Thanks to them, too, we learned they've been doing this practice for quite some time.

So, how should DepEd end this?

For starters, any team that's late in providing credentials automatically gets barred from competing.

And if its promotion they want, coaches who are caught cheating should have a promotion-freeze for say, five years?  

Coaches are supposed to teach, not cheat.

In this chase for victories, they have forgotten that.

But it’s good, too, that not all teachers have forgotten that.  While the Gothong baseball coach is an embarrassment to Cebu school sports, UV’s gymnastics coach is great example.

I hope the bigwigs over at UV will laud Jasmine dela Pisa for choosing values over winning. 

UV is almost always a cinch to win the team event in gymnastics but that didn’t matter to dela Pisa, who dropped a player who was giving them problems.

“One of our gymnasts has been giving us trouble and refused to be disciplined. I decided not to let him join, to discipline him even if it means we can't form a complete team for the men's artistic gymnastics,” said dela Pisa.

UV’s gymnastics coach shows that it’s not always about winning, something the Gothong baseball coach forgot.