AT THE END of the 28th Cebu City Olympics yesterday, Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu City office technical committee head Francis Ramirez said there are now a lot of athletes from the public schools who have qualified for the Cebu City Niños team that will compete in the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, in February 2019.
The happiest person to hear the development was Cebu City Councilor Joy Augustus Young, who was the most vocal critic of the Niños’ performance in the previous editions of the Cviraa and Palarong Pambansa.
Majority of those who qualified were from public schools in Unit 1, which topped the overall medal tally with a 25-22-23 (gold-silver-bronze) tally. Unit 1 is composed of Tisa Elementary School, Punta Princesa Elementary School, and Basak Community Elementary School.
“I was already expecting that because of our school for sports program. What we did was increased the budget for the program. We now have 60 coaches from the Cebu City Sports Commission who train public school athletes to make them effective in competitions like this,” Young said.