PSC Commissioner Edward Hayco. | PSC Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Edward Hayco, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) commissioner, has been working under the radar in making a radical move in Philippine sports.
The former Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) chairman and the “Father of Cebu Dancesport,” aims to establish a nationwide grassroots sports training program that would change certain norms in the local sports scene.
READ: Hayco humbled by appointment as PSC commissioner, to strengthen grassroots sports
Projects with Prisaa
In a press conference held on Wednesday, September 6, at the PSC Region 7 office at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC), Hayco laid out some of his major projects, which earned the support of the Private Schools Athletic Association (Prisaa).
Hayco, who was appointed as PSC commissioner, in December 2022, has a joint project with the Prisaa for its member schools nationwide to adopt at least 20 to 30 potential public school athletes into their own sports program.
These athletes, whom Hayco considered as”orphans,” are those, who won medals in various meets at the regional and national levels and who were not able to make the cut into the national training pool for various reasons.
Prisaa to adopt ‘orphan’ athletes
“It’s a social crusade where sports will be a transformational and educational tool for these deserving public school athletes. This program will cater to the least privileged but talented athletes,” said Hayco.
“We already have a formula to this and already planned this out months before we proposed it during the National Prisaa in Zamboanga earlier this year. We’re very glad that PRISAA and its member schools are willing to adopt these athletes, who could become our future Hidilyn Diaz, Elreen Ando, and other notable international athletes,” he said.
Currently, Prisaa has 17 regions under its umbrella with over 400 member schools. Each region that has more or less 10 member schools can adopt up to 20 to 30 athletes depending on their specialty sports.
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Train 10,000 athletes
Hayco said that if it would be multiplied, Prisaa could train and develop up to more than 10,000 young athletes.
This way, it helps close the gap between these “orphaned” athletes and the country’s long-standing problem of discovering more talented athletes in the province.
“These athletes we call orphans have the potential and talent. They just didn’t make the cut because of inexperience and their age during their time of competition. They deserve to be discovered and trained properly also because they are as good as those who made the cut,” Hayco said.
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Largest archery tournament
Hayco’s best case study was CCSC’s highly-successful 2014 Guinness World Record Largest Archery Lesson and Largest Archery Tournament in Cebu.
It helped solve the dwindling number of archers from less than a hundred to over 8,000 within a couple of years after involving public schools as its main participants.
Amazingly, it used improvised “PVC pipe” bows with the help of Architect Don-Don Sombrio who is now the secretary general of the World Archery Philippines (WAP).
READ: ’PVC archery program’ of CCSC adopted as country’s grassroots program
Support by PSC Chairman
In addition, Hayco’s CCSC volunteer-based grassroots program earned high praise from former PSC Chairman Richie Garcia and was even proposed to be implemented at the national level during the latter’s term.
This time, Hayco has all the opportunity to push this radical movement which he strongly believes will discover more talents coming from the province.
However, Hayco needs to convince the top brass of the Department of Education (DepEd) assuring the latter that the Prisaa has agreed to the terms that they won’t “pirate” or secretly recruit potential and talented public school athletes which they will “adopt” under a joint project with the PSC.
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