Matchpoint
by John Pages
Sun Star Cebu
AS chairman of the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) since 2010, Ed Hayco has accomplished plenty. In his own words, Ed shares with us his thoughts:
ON CULTURE: Instead of accomplishments, we prefer to call it our contributions. At the top of our list is culture and believing in one’s self. Confidence would have been an easier word but believing in one’s self has a deeper meaning.
Let me tell you a touching story. The father of an archery athlete named Niño approached me in a gathering. I didn’t know him. He explained how happy he was that his son was helping out as a volunteer coach in Guadalupe public elementary. Their family was supposed to go on a three-week vacation but he pleaded with his father to cancel the vacation because he was assigned to give lessons in archery. The father recounted to us the story with so much pride in his son for how responsible he has become.
Another story was during the Batang Pinoy in Tagum. A father approached me during badminton competition. He wanted to say thank you and explained that his daughter was very shy. But as a volunteer coach during summer, her daughter was able to learn 3 things: 1) Overcome her shyness; 2) Develop leadership through coaching; and the most meaningful and the exact words of the father, 3): “My daughter developed “a heart for others!”
The Guinness records in archery, chess, arnis, and winning the overall title in Batang Pinoy, the summer grassroots, the volunteer coaching, etc. were all tools to achieve this culture. The success of any nation or business is its culture.
Our theme, “Transforming our youth thru sports,” is about character-building. Sports can either bring out the best or worst in an athlete.. the gold medal is just part of the journey, not the end.
2017 PLANS. To work closely with DepEd. 1) We have plans to implement a school for sports where all athletes will be in one classroom. They will have different class schedules. 2) An assistant principal for sports in the schools for sports. 3) Develop incentives for public school teacher-coaches and school principals so that the athletes and coaches will be better attended to. 4) Assign high level coaches to train public school teacher-coaches to raise the level of coaching competence. 5) Institutionalize strength and conditioning programs into public school sports programs. 6) Assign 25 volunteer high-level coaches to offer free coaching thrice-a-week, year-round in the Abellana sports center catering to Abellana high school and city central elementary. That’s a potential source of athletes having a population of 9,000 students. If this succeeds, we’ll do similar programs with other schools.
Why are our focus in public schools? Because the students have the least opportunities and resources and yet, they are our richest sources of athletes. Most of these kids cannot afford a P300/session coach. But these kids have the heart of an athlete — they thrive in adversity. We provide them with a hope for a better future.
ON BUTCH RAMIREZ. The PSC Chairman is supportive of Cebu because he has been closely watching our programs when he was chairman in 2005. Since then, we’ve been in touch and have always appraised him of our grassroots program which now covers 25 sports, and also our Guinness records.
Thru volunteerism, we develop the passion and dedication of the athlete for the sports, instead of being obsessed and entitled. This culture has a rippling effect. Winning medals now has a deeper meaning and a gold medal weighs heavier in a different way. When an athlete who has volunteered wins a medal, he wears it with a deeper sense of pride.
ON DEPED. I’ve been trying to lobby this idea, still a hard sell, that the PSC chairman needs to be the undersecretary of DepEd for Sports. As long as PSC is not part of or not an insider of DepEd, the sports programs policies of PSC cannot be implemented effectively, especially the grassroots program.
Just like CCSC. We have a sports program but who do we implement it with? There is no single unit in Phil. govt. that has the command of warm bodies. Only DepEd can make a memo, require and produce the number of kids. That’s why CCSC works closely with DepEd. All our programs are thru DepEd. Once we realize this organizational “flaw,” we can be an effective conductor of the orchestra.
FINAL WORDS. I’m not really a sports person. During the Los Angeles Olympics, the stadium was in front of our hotel. I didn’t even watch! It doesn’t excite me to be in a competition. I’d rather watch Broadway! What an irony? In short, sports to me is a tool. A social screwdriver or pliers to pry open the potential of the underprivileged kids and “make them believe in themselves.” As businessmen, we approach the sports program like a social entrepreneur: we see coaches as managers, athletes as employees, the product as medals and the grassroots training pool. Right culture plus motivated employees equals productivity!
(john@pages.ph)
