Numbers Game

    While the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), and sports "journalists" who couldn't be bothered to do research all hailed the appointment of Richie Garcia as the new Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman, my stomach churned nervously.  Recently, the joint POC-PSC task force announced that the Philippines could send as much as over 200 athletes to this year's Asian Games.  While people see Garcia's appointment bringing about peace between the POC and the PSC and the eventual improvement of Philippine Sports, I only see more disappointment.  While that makes me sound like an old curmudgeon with, wait for it, "crab mentality,"  I'm backing it up with numbers.

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Missed Conceptions

     All so-called experts keep saying that money, or the lack of it, is the main reason for the Philippines' lack of sporting success.  Let me say this though.  Throw in more money, and we might still not be as successful as we want.  For the money (if it ever comes) to work, we, as a country, need to get rid of these long standing misconceptions.


Misconception # 1:  We are world class. All we need is the money.

     The truth is, save for pool (billiards), wushu and maybe dragon boat racing, we are not world class; we haven't been in a while.  For a country to be considered a world power in a sport, it can't just have a singular world champion who won once in say, 10 years.  One athlete winning a world championship doesn't mean the training program is a success.  A country can be considered world class if they win and almost win on a consistent basis.  The Philippines has to face reality.  There are no Olympic sports where it has been a world power for almost 2 decades.  Boxing?  Tae Kwon Do?  Basketball? Archery? We haven't been close enough to smell the world powers.  The sooner the sports powers realize this and create a comprehensive, "back-to-the-drawing-board-type" of training program, the better.   The sporting powers must eat humble pie now and accept that we have a long way to go, so that an honest effort can be made to develop talents.

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Shorts: Signs of the Apocalypse

(Each week, From the Fifty Peso Seats has a weekly edition of shorts, compilations of interesting but short posts of developments and trivia about the sporting world.)


     When weird, unexpected things begin to happen, you can't help but think about that blasted Mayan prediction that the world will end on 2012.  If the sports world were any gauge, that prediction may indeed come to life.


Pains

     In the course of any NBA season, players from all teams will be affected by injuries, but this season seems to have taken quite a turn. Various superstars, ranging from game changers (Kobe Bryant, Michael Redd, TIm Duncan) to Potential Stars (Greg Oden, Blake Griffin) have all logged time in the hurt locker.  Furthermore, some teams, like the Portland Trail Blazers and the Golden State Warriors had as many as six players injured at a time, causing them to almost default in games. If that may not be weird enough for some, get this.  This season, no fewer than three head coaches have missed games due to illness and injury as well!  Warriors coach Don Nelson let assistant Keith Smart take over several games as he recuperated from heart problems.  Meanwhile, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy  joined his son in sick bay as he missed two games due to an illness as well.  Blazers coach Nate Mcmillan really took the cake (and looking at his growing waistline maybe ate it too) as he tore his achilles tendon, ironically while filling in for one of his injured players during practice!  Injuries may be a part of every season, but when coaches start dropping, isn't that an eyebrow raising situation?  Hey, I coached in our alumni basketball league.  Should I be worried?


Too Good?


     As of January 14, 2010, all the Filipino athletes who medalled in the 2009 Laos South East Asian Games received their full (and increased) monetary incentives from the government. Then, the Philippines Sports Commission also announced their plan of building a mall at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC), where its profits will be used to fund the athletes' training and tournaments.  The RMSC has free space as the PSC successfully (finally!) evicted the girlie bars along Adriatico St. which were distractions to both our athletes and coaches, as they "enjoyed" the bars' different "attractions."  Furthermore, the PSC announced that they have already raised PhP 16 million for the athletes' training fund in the run up to the 2010 Asian Games.  Now, all the above mentioned developments are positive developments, which should bring warmth to our hearts, but when I think about it, when has the PSC worked this well and efficient this early?  Now, thinking about how well we have it this early in the year, I shudder.  Is this really the start of good things for our sports program, or is this the proverbial "last meal" before the world goes kaput in 2012?


Peace-Fool?

     Over 12 years ago, Bret "Hitman" Hart was all set to leave the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) but he refused to lose his last match, thereby making it difficult to turnover his WWE Championship belt.  Owner Vince McMahon then cooked up a scheme that had Shawn Michaels win the belt with a questionable referee's decision.  The infamous "Montreal Screw Job" saw a frustrated Hart actually spit a loogie at his boss and leave the company in an ungracious manner.  Many thought that the screw job caused an irreparable split between the "Excellence of Execution" and McMahon, but just over a week ago, Hart reappeared on Raw as guest host, burying the hatchet with Michaels and then McMahon.  Furthermore, McMahon offered to nominate Hart's father Stu into the WWE Hall of Fame.  In fact, the two apparently made up well enough that in the last segment of the show, McMahon "kicked" Hart in a clearly scripted segment.  Now, there's talks that Bret might reappear on the show again.  While wrestling fans celebrated the moment, one has to take a moment to take stock of what happened.  To quote Bret's first line upon entering the WWE ring for the first time in over a decade, "Well, hell has frozen over."


photos courtesy of brethart.com, bbs.hoopchina.com and slamonline.com

When (Dirty) Harry Met Silly

     When Harry Angping was appointed the new Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman a few months ago, everyone could see trouble brewing for Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Jose "Peping" Cojuangco Jr. miles away.  Unlike other PSC administrators, it was clear Angping, a former Manila congressman, would be completely his own man.  With his deep political and business contacts, he obviously did not lack allies and connections, but what made him even more "dangerous" to Peping was "Dirty Harry" had a concrete set of plans he intended to push.

     SInce A

ngping's entry into the PSC, Philippine Sports has become the backdrop of a most riveting soap opera.  In the months that followed, all of the PSC's moves were met with complaints of bias from the POC, while the PSC returned the favor by closing offices and refusing to release funds.  Recently, a new issue has pushed things to become even more heated.

     The issue stems from the new track suits (jacket, jogging pants, shorts, etc) that the PSC has designed and produced for the Philippine contingent for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in December.  As expected, the POC, through Cojuanco apologizer Steve Hontiveros, dismissed the suits as "not passing standards," going as far as saying they were a big, "waste of money."  

      The "standards" that were not met?  Well, Hontiveros cited that firstly, the jacket design was not submitted for their approval, so aside from the design flaws, certain POC sponsors were not given their due space.  As far as I know, the PSC spends for all of the track suits, so why would the PSC need POC approval?   Why would the POC, a PRIVATE company, have the po

wer to dictate

 how the PSC, a government agency, should spend the government's money?

      Then, the track suits also didn't pass the "standard" of color, since the new suits were yellow, which Hontiveros claimed is not, "our color."  Ummm... seen your own flag lately Steve?  Yellow is our color.  Red, blue and YELLOW are the colors of our flag.  Furthermore, let's keep this in perspective.  In 2002, the Adidas-sponsored track suits were black and red and I don't see black on our flag.  Our Beijing Olympians went to the Opening in Aqua Green Barongs, definitely not "our" color, so why all this flak for the PSC preparing the track suits (a lot earlier than usual I might add)?  

      It would have been a lot more believable if the "standards" the POC were crowing about actually had something to do with the track suits' performance, but seeing the 2006 and 2007 POC appro

ved track suits (the 2006 New Balance suits were too thin for the cold Qatar weather while the 2007 Everlast jackets had faulty zippers), it is clear that their "standards" are all about something else. The only "standard" this set of yellow track suits failed to pass is the "30% commission" standard the previous approved suits "passed."    

      As long as Cojuangco steadfastly hangs on to his ever-decreasing dictator-like hold on Philippine sports and Angping continues his plans of challenging and antagonizing him, the feuds will keep coming on all fronts, just like our favorite telenovelas on television.  From gold medal winning predictions to budget concerns, Harry Angping's PSC and Peping Cojuanco's POC are battling a bitter feud that even the stellar creative teams of ABS CBN and GMA 7 couldn't even dream of, and now, even something as simple as jacket design has become a battleground.  While this whole thing earns a lot of forehead slapping and heaad shaking, it seems I can't help but keep staying tuned to it.  It is clear that the last thing our country needs is a feud that will stunt the growth of our youth and national athletes, but I for one can't turn my head away from this telenovela, When (Dirty) Harry Met Silly.

Dissecting the Olympic Debacle (part 2)

Foreign Investment

While many grumble about recruiting Fil-Foreigners to the national team, I most welcome this move. After all, they are Fiilipinos too and they have every right to compete for national team slots. Hopefully though, these FIl-Foreigners are not given free passes to join the team. Let them try out and just give them slots because they were trained somewhere else. Furthermore, if we are going to recruit Fil-Foreigners, let's make sure we recruit the best ones, ones who can win, or young enough to improve and win. Please, no more supposed saviors like Athletics' David Bunevacz or Tennis' Eric Taino. Why didn't we get Swimming's Coughlin, who is now a two-time Olympic gold medallist or BMX Cycling's U.S. National Champion Caluag, who desperately wanted to represent us but was ignored by the cycling NSA? Recruiting Fil-Foreign players will help us, as long as we get the right ones. If we can't train the right ones, then let's go homegrown for that particular sport.

Learning from Jedi Masters

Almost all sports officials try to look learned by exclaiming we always need "grassroots development program" to boost sports development in our country. The problem is, nobody is really creating a proper grassroots program for any sport. Most "grassroots programs" here are nothing more than kids playing and enjoying the sport. Nothing wrong with that, but the program should be designed with a particular goal and time frame, if we want to develop future world champions. The problem is, most of our coaches, especially in these youth programs are former players or relatives with no coaching experience or training. No offense to these people as they are mostly volunteers, but how are they expected to imbibe the proper fundamentals if they don't know them themselves? What we need are elite coaches for oth the national AND grassroots programs, or better yet, we should pay the elite national coaches enough to handle both programs. This will ensure continuity between the two programs. At this time, though, most of our sports are in need of elite coaches, and admittedly most sports would need foreign coaches. Our national coaches are mostly great people (and I have met a lot of them), but we all need additional knowledge from them. Hiring all these coaches would require tons of money, but it is the proper step to the right direction. Also, that's why it's key to pick very few priority sports.

Pruning the Weeds

It's a common refrain to ask officials to step down whenever we lose, and I have to say, there is some prudence in that call. Unfortunately, many of these sports officials don't actually leave or find a roundabout way to come back. Sports officials are not politicians. Their roles include promoting the popularity and development of the sport. They are given funds and they have to manage these between international tournaments for the national team and different tournaments for the promotion of the sport in the country. This is not a job for people who don't play the sport. This is not a job for people who can barely play. This is not a job for politicians. We should have officials who have been working for the NSA for several years, beginning with the dirty work like arranging events, looking for private sponsors and the like. This way, they can learn the job first ad become the NSA Head when they are good ready. We should have officials who play and enjoy the sport, so they have a better idea on how to promote it. Lastly, we should have officials who go around the the happenings of the sport so they can truly understand the athletes and the sentiments of all participants. Sports officials should be people completely immersed in the sport, like the eer humble and passionate William Ramirez, not politicians who lose their congressional bids or brown nosers who cling to positions like barnacles.

There you have it. They are simple solutions but seemingly out of our sports officials' collective brains. Hopefully, sports politicians, especially those currently on the upper echlons of our sporting world, will soon find themselves jobless, and that will get the ball rolling. In this way, it won't hurt so bad to root for our national team.