Cebu Football

(This column appears on the Aug. 31 edition of Sun.Star Cebu ) SO THE case between Britt Reroma of USC and Cesafi commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy ended with the former San Beda College Red Cubs coach issuing an apology to the commissioner. The problem started with Scott Aying and Cesafi's two-year residency rule, which for me, is one rule that should be scrapped.

(This column appears in the Aug. 29 edition of Sun.Star Cebu ) I HAVE always been skeptical of sports leaders, especially those who talk a lot, unless of course they prove me otherwise. So when I first learned that there was a party-list for the Filipino athletes, I thought, well, this is something new. But still, I was willing to give the PBA Partylist the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps, they’d really do something new, especially when Rep. Mark Sambar told the Scoop sa Kamayan forum in September 2010, “ We ran under the promise of ensuring that the legacy of the Filipino athlete is realized and we will do just that .”

LIKE some fans, I’ve been batting for it for years and finally, the Cesafi has changed its format for the football competition this year. The previous format was ridiculous. A five-team league playing a single-round robin elimination plus a semifinal outing for the top four.

DURING a meeting with fellow columnists, I learned an interesting tidbit. Majority of the stories that got the most hits in the website had something to do with sex.  And majority of the readers?  Married men. In sports, sex--or rather, sexism--is a big thing, too.

I HOPE DepED official Danilo Villadolid reconsiders their plan not to allow athletes to compete in different events in the Milo Little Olympics national finals. You can join more than one event only but if it’s in the same sport—say, the 200 and 100-meter in athletics. But Doc Danny is discouraging those who join different events, like athletics and basketball, as in the case of Joseph Berdin, a basketball player who won the first gold medal for USC in shot put.

"REALISTICALLY, if we qualify for the World Cup, how far can we go? China didn’t even win a single game at the last Olympics .” When you read a statement like that, you’d expect a cynic to have made it, not one familiar with basketball, or even sports in general. But you’d be surprised who said it.

BACK in our hometown, I'd usually watch that late pickup game between neighborhood kids and one character always standout. We called him Cocoy.  And boy could he drive.  He could make those crazy layups that always impressed the few who watched him, never mind if he rarely hit the ring.

I WILL never forget that 2002 Asian Games semifinal match in Busan when we lost to South Korea.  I was somewhere where I wasn't supposed to be down South with a lady, while officially, I was in Cebu in the midst of a mid-term preparations. Up by two, with seconds left and with the trusty Olsen Racela on the line? We're back in the Asian Games finals I thought. It never happened.

DURING our first few days in Cebu as college freshmen, me and a couple of other kababayans decided to pass the time away by kicking a ball at one of those empty spaces at the Cebu Business Park. A few minutes later, a guard came and shooed us away and we all thought, "Why? We were not disturbing anybody and noone's using this space."

CRAP and double crap. That was my reaction after seeing Gilas Pilipinas lose that 13-point lead in the fourth quarter to Chinese Taipei in the Fiba Asia Championships last Saturday night. Like countless others, I’ve been looking forward to that match ever since organizers of the Jones Cup--an annual tournament held in Taiwan--unceremoniously shoved the door on Gilas after that political turmoil over the death of a fisherman.