THE LEGENDARY Cebu City Sports Hall of Famer M. Lhuillier Jewelers football team vowed to continue supporting football in Cebu, as it aims to encourage young Cebuanos to continue improving their skills in the sport.
Australian Graeme Mackinnon, who acted as playing coach of the Jewellers when they won the 1988 PFF National Championship in Iloilo City, said he, along with Cebu Football Association (CFA) officials, will be going to Canduman in Mandaue City today to distribute football boots to young booters in the place.
Mackinnon said he will bring some of his former Jewelers’ players in the distribution, particularly the Jewelers’ goal keeper, Gemini Sitoy, who won the PFF Most Valuable Player award during the Jewelers’ titular-snaring campaign back in 1988.
Sitoy, who is now based in the USA, said during the team’s reunion last Monday at Michel’s Deli and Café in Banilad that the team’s feat in the PFF was a memorable one.
“It was all about the team. It was never about one person but a collaboration of effort that won us the championship title,” said Sitoy, who established a record in that tourney as being the only goal-keeper who did not concede a goal in the 480 minutes that the team played in the tournament against five rivals.