SWU’s Solon sees need for sports clubs to spot budding athletes, keeps kids healthy

Southwestern University (SWU)-PHINMA Athletics Director Pio Solon. /Mars G. Alison

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Southwestern University (SWU) – PHINMA is playing “catch-up” with other universities in Cebu in terms of developing athletes from the grassroots level.

SWU-PHINMA Athletics Director Pio Solon said that this schoolyear, their Athletics department will be putting up sports clubs which will be open to all students – college, secondary and elementary – in addition to the school’s existing sports program.

“We’re playing catch up,” said Solon referring to other universities whose elementary and secondary are doing well in multi-sporting competitions.

In addition to basketball, Solon said the sporting clubs that will be put up are football, volleyball, Olympic weightlifting, chess, taekwondo and badminton.

According to Solon, they eventually see athletes coming from these sports clubs as the ones who will represent SWU-PHINMA at the Basic Education level in different sporting events.

Solon cites as an example their chess players whom he foresees to be competing soon in national and international competitions, not just in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI).

Aside from the grassroots program, Solon said that they also see the sports clubs as an opportunity to keep their students healthy.

“The Athletics Department saw that it’s an opportunity for us to serve the goals of making our student population healthy because at the same time, we’ve also seen the positive correlation between physical activity and academic performance. We’re big believers of that, that’s why we’re doing this initiative,” added Solon.

“Sports club basically is…all of our students can opt to join, it’s an optional, the rationale is it’s an additional service to the parents of our school kay ang nahitabo, mga bata karon, imbis mag engage sila sa sports, naa sila pirmi sa gadgets,” explained Solon.

(Sports club basically is…all of our students can opt to join, it’s an optional, the rationale is it’s an additional service to the parents of our school because what is happening now is that instead of being engaged in sports, the children now are always playing with their gadgets.)

The sporting clubs will be rolled out as soon as the schoolyear opens in July 2019, “so we’re inviting our students to join, even if they won’t compete, it gives them a chance to partake in sports as a recreational endeavour,” said Solon.

“Nakita sad namo na integral bitaw kaayo ang support sa parents sa sporting prowess sa children so with this, we’re actively engaging with the students and their parents also,” said Solon.

(We’ve also seen how integral is the parent’s support in the children’s sporting prowess, so with this, we’re actively engaging with the students and their parents also.)

Solon further added that they are also aggressively looking into linking the sports clubs to the scholarships that the school offers.

“Pending the evaluation of what happens this year, we’re going to broaden it to more sports, such as athletics,” said Solon.

At the same time, Solon said that “we see it as a sustainable root for more grassroots sports development because we’re no longer fertile, it’s really the parents sending their children to us, instead of sending them to the internet cafes, they send them to us so they can engage in sports.”

Solon said that they are very happy of the support that the SWU-PHINMA’s administration has given to the Athletics department to actualize the sports clubs program./dcb