Pupils of Bonbon Elementary School learn the basics of boxing this summer.
(Contributed photo/ Cebu City Sports Commission)
Sixteen public elementary school gyms in Cebu City were picked as venues for the grassroots sports programs of the city government this summer.
“We do it this way so that indigent children no longer have to travel and spend for their travel just to avail of our training programs,” said Edward Hayco, chairman of the Cebu City Sports Commission.
Since the target are marginalized families, Hayco said student’s are not required to come in sports uniforms. For example, those who sign up for dancesport can come in their school uniforms.
For archery, bows are made out of PVC pipes with string. Bamboo is used to make arrows. The sports commission made 2,000 improvised bows and arrows to be distributed to archery students.
Sports commissioner Bernard Ricablanca encouraged athlete-trainors during a meeting last Friday to “improvise” in the absence of equipment.
He said a table tennis instructor could start by teaching students the proper way of bouncing balls on their rackets or making these balls bounce on the wall if no tennis table is available.
“The grassroots sports program is there to divert children away from bad influences,” Ricablanca said.
Hayco said the CCSC’s summer training program survived the last 15 years without asking financial aid from City Hall by relying on private sector partners for logistics.
BARANGAYS
The city’s summer grassroots training program started in 1999 by introducing dancesports to children in the barangays.
So far, 30,000 children have been trained. The program produced two world champions – Wilbert Aunzo and Pearl Marie Cañeda, who won the gold medal in the Youth Latin Amateur Category in the 68th Australian Dancesport competition held in Australia on November 2013.
When he was appointed CCSC chairman in 2010, Hayco expanded the program to 14 other sports.
This included softball although this sport is starting to “die a natural death.”
“We have to revive various sports. To do this, we should be businesslike and market the sport to children. We have to give the sport exposure as much as possible,” he said.
Most popular
Since basketball is something that everyone wants to play, Hayco said he made it the anchor sport this summer.
Basketball clinics are held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at government sports centers.
At 2 p.m. they start teaching other sports programs.
Hayco said they expected to reach 5,000 children from the city’s 80 barangays in the summer program.
Dancesport remains the most popular choice with 1,000 participants.
A mini sports tournament is being organized in the 16 training venues after the program.
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