Fair Play: Forget IT Park, Ayala is Cebu's sports park
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."
That's probably what members of Dynamo FC thought when guards at the IT Park--one of the known running hubs in the City—thought shooed them away after they decided to kick a ball around.
Carl Baring, who manages Dynamo FC, said four of his players decided to meet up at the IT Park after the downpour cancelled yet another one of their practices.
"Four of our boys (mostly 11-year-olds) wanted to kick the ball around in what little respite from the weather. So they decided to meet up at the IT park open grounds for some juggling and passing only to be reprimanded by the security guards. There were very few people around so it is not that they were annoying anybody. The boys were really disappointed and, since they had come from a tournament in San Carlos City a month ago, they were dismayed at how our city is light years away from the environment at San Carlos City," he wrote in an e-mail.
San Carlos City, of course, is known for its vast playground, something that Cebu lacks.
It's pretty sad that the IT Park, which is known for being the venue of most fun runs, isn't football-friendly. If they were afraid the boys would hit a few cars, well, here's a newsflash--a parked car at the IT park would have more chances of getting damaged from a drunk driver than from an errant football.
So I told Carl that next time his boys want to have a kick-around, to forget IT Park and instead go to the Cebu Business Park. In the past few years, the management of the Cebu Business Park has had a change of heart and now encourages sports activities in its vacant lot. Aside from joggers, I've seen cyclists, flag footballers, martial artists, dancers, footballers, rugby players and badminton players converge at that vacant lot behind CIC.
Besides the guards there are assigned not to shoo people away but to make sure the people there are safe. How about that!
Aside from Carl, I also got a reaction from Terry Hoge, who reacted on my column on the Gilas vs. Chinese Taipei Game. He wrote, "Just thought I'd say. Keep politics out of your sports article. What's wrong with your editor? How can he allow such nonsense?"
Well, like I told Carl, that nonsense was the sports editor’s idea.
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."
That's probably what members of Dynamo FC thought when guards at the IT Park--one of the known running hubs in the City—thought shooed them away after they decided to kick a ball around.
Carl Baring, who manages Dynamo FC, said four of his players decided to meet up at the IT Park after the downpour cancelled yet another one of their practices.
"Four of our boys (mostly 11-year-olds) wanted to kick the ball around in what little respite from the weather. So they decided to meet up at the IT park open grounds for some juggling and passing only to be reprimanded by the security guards. There were very few people around so it is not that they were annoying anybody. The boys were really disappointed and, since they had come from a tournament in San Carlos City a month ago, they were dismayed at how our city is light years away from the environment at San Carlos City," he wrote in an e-mail.
San Carlos City, of course, is known for its vast playground, something that Cebu lacks.
It's pretty sad that the IT Park, which is known for being the venue of most fun runs, isn't football-friendly. If they were afraid the boys would hit a few cars, well, here's a newsflash--a parked car at the IT park would have more chances of getting damaged from a drunk driver than from an errant football.
So I told Carl that next time his boys want to have a kick-around, to forget IT Park and instead go to the Cebu Business Park. In the past few years, the management of the Cebu Business Park has had a change of heart and now encourages sports activities in its vacant lot. Aside from joggers, I've seen cyclists, flag footballers, martial artists, dancers, footballers, rugby players and badminton players converge at that vacant lot behind CIC.
Besides the guards there are assigned not to shoo people away but to make sure the people there are safe. How about that!
Aside from Carl, I also got a reaction from Terry Hoge, who reacted on my column on the Gilas vs. Chinese Taipei Game. He wrote, "Just thought I'd say. Keep politics out of your sports article. What's wrong with your editor? How can he allow such nonsense?"
Well, like I told Carl, that nonsense was the sports editor’s idea.
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