Cebu Football

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Dec. 31 edition) WHILE some are quick to heap praises on Manny Pacquiao for his comeback win against Brandon Rios--overlooking the fact that Rios was tailor-made to be a comeback win for Pacquiao--another Pinoy boxer gets largely ignored in the year-end stories coming out from mainstream and news websites.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Dec. 31 issue) IN A time when kids have gadgets left and right, and are busy with their online lives, the Cebu City Sports Commission has come up with a unique way to get them active. By promoting the Pinoy games that those who grew up with no cellphones, tablets or the Internet played with while growing up.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Dec. 28 edition) FOR Pinoy sports fans, especially those who love basketball and football, 2013 was a special one. One for the books. And better yet, 2013 also opened the doors for bigger and greater things ini 2014.

AS MUCH as the Filipino sports fans are disgusted with how POC chairman Peping Cojuangco conducted himself prior the Southeast Asian Games, I think it's about time the whole country—critics included—back him up should he push through with the move to reform the Southeast Asian Games. Peping said he will raise the issue of how Myanmar is hosting the games with the Olympic Council of Asia and I hope something concrete comes out of that, before the 2015 edition comes along.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Dec. 21 issue ) EVERYBODY but the sports bodies thinks that the criteria for inclusion in the Philippine national team in the SEA Games is one big joke. "Prove that you can win a gold medal," the POC president said months ago.

ANY death is tragic, but the death of 16-year-old Jonas Joshua Garcia is even more as his came days after collapsing in the boxing ring. Cebuano Z Gorres suffered the same injury but hye survived because he was fighting just minutes away from the best trauma center in the world.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Dec. 16 issue ) WE GREW up dreaming of baseball glory as kids, but with equipment hard to come by, I remember a resourceful playmate coming up with a unique invention--an improvised glove made up of slippers and cardboard. Malls were unheard of down south when I was growing up, and sports shops even more.

(This is my Fair Play column for Sun.Star Cebu's Dec. 12 issue ) I FIRST got interested in sports because of the Southeast Asian Games and a peculiar question. It was 1991, and I was a 12-year-old who was starting to read the papers for the first time. It was also the year the country hosted the SEA Games and my first question was, why are there events like track and field or basketball in SEA Games? I thought, then, that the SEA Games were games played at sea, not a gathering of the best teams from Southeast Asia.

THERE may be no men’s football team in the Southeast Asian Games but that doesn’t mean Philippine football isn’t represented in Myanmar. Tomorrow, the women’s team, led by Coach Ernie Nierras of the Stallion, will be taking on the dangerous Myanmar side for their first game in Group B and saying the Malditas team will be in a tough campaign would be an understatement.

I MAY BE biased, but for me, one of the best bunch of national athletes was that 2010 Philippine men’s national team that played in the Suzuki Cup. Before the tournament, they got the same amount of compensation as the attention given them, which was next to nothing. That they gave honor and pride to the country for what they have done can’t be disputed.

MARIO LORENZO CENIZA is going to be a football star. That’s what I thought the first time I saw Mario Ceniza’s kid play years ago. A prodigous talent, he was a class above the rest even if he was playing above his age group. His vision, passing skills and striking abilities--in both feet--was evident in Springdale’s 8-0 thrashing of Mindanao in the Milo National finals last week. The attacks started from him and his pin-point passes from deep in the midfield.

"NOW is the time to look deeper into the composition of the team," Philippine national team manager Dan Palami said during an interview a couple of days ago. "And that includes all the players and the coaching staff." Coaching staff?  “Everyone,” he said. Everyone? Everyone. He said and he didn’t blink.

I JOINED the 21K division in the Cebu City Marathon almost two years ago and I haven’t joined a 5K ever since. Though I’ve always planned to do so, but “wanting” to join one never ended up in me joining one. But, prior that 21K run, that couple of years when I trooped to the Cebu City Sports Center for my daily grind has been a huge help. I’ve lost weight, a lot of it, though I’ve gained some back, as of the last “weigh-in,” I’m still 20 pounds lighter than my heaviest weight about six or seven years ago.

TEAM Visayas swept the elementary and high school football fans in impressive fashion, routing their foes in the final day of the Milo Little Olympics National finals. The elementary team, represented by the Don Bosco Technological Center of coach Joselito Bono, scored a third straight shutout with a 6-0 win over Mindanao to finish the tournament with nine points, five points clear of second placer Mindanao.