EVER since I met sepak takraw’s dragon lady as I endearingly call her, I have followed the sport and Karen Tanchanco Caballero became a friend i my world of sports.

She was the chef de mission for apre andemic Asian Beach Games event and another friend, Tom Carrasco of triathlon, requested me to help her as she was guesting in the PSA Forum, and we hit it off.

In the 2019, I was in Subic for the SEA Games and I volunteered to do an impromptu teambuilding for her team, which I think helped, also had Karen as a guest when I was doing the vlog Sports World And Beyond (SWAB) a couple of years ago.

Those were the times she was still dreaming of coming up with her own sepak takraw nationwide league, even as her sport was just starting to grow, now, with more than 70 clubs with around 10,000 members nationwde, Karen has seen this dream come true.

And just last week, I was in Laoag for the Luzon leg of her 2024 Pilipinas Sepak Takraw League that attracted 25 clubs from all over Luzon with teams from NCR, including school teams, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Zambales, Cagayan, Ilocos Sur, Nueva, Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Olongapo, Subic, and host province Ilocos Norte.

This was the biggest turn out as the Mindanao leg in Butuan had 18 clubs while Tacloban in the Visayas had 11.

With the week long event over, the cast is complete for the national finals set in Tagaytay end of ths month to early June, and Karen has a lot of reasons to be happy with the way things are shaping up for her NSA.

One of the reasons is that she finally met Laoag Mayor Mike Keon who even attended the opening ceremonies at the Centennial Arena, even stayed to watch his Laoag team play and win its opening match aganst Subic in the under 18 boys quadrant event, and that same day, we had dinner at the Mayor’s house with Karen bringing her mom, Irene Tanchanco, also the sec-gen of her NSA to the dinner .

Truth is, I was the one who arranged the meeting as I am fortunate to be a friend to the good Mayor, and he and Karen found themselves kindred spirits in a lot of ways, both are passionate sports leaders, pretty straight forward, with similar principles, and an interest in yoga, Mike is also into astrology by the way.

It was a very interesting dinner believe me but unfortunately, we all agreed to keep a lot of what we discussed to remain between the 4 of us, Karen’s mom included.

Karen was open about her admiration for what Mike has accomplished for Philippine sports and the way he stood up for his principles during those troubled times while Mike described Karen as different from the usual NSA leaders.

Me, I will always be impressed with sports leaders who care and fight for their athletes and these two belong to that category.

I was just talking over the phone with Karen before doing this piece and she reterated her thanks about her personally meeting Mike, more si that she admitted she was on a crossroad recently and Mike was able to help her make her decision.

Mike, who is now getting to be more familar with sepak as a sport, is happy too with how the sport is developing, including in Laoag City where hs team struck for golds in the last R1AA meet for the first time, and Laoag too, for the first time emerged overall champion in the regional meet.

Mike was also happy about the fact that his U-18 boys quadrant event team emerged champion in its division and qualified to the national finals in Tagaytay.

And who knows, Karen and Mike might meet again in Tagaytay as she will invite Mike to the finals, and knowing Mike, he will probably find the time to watch and cheer his team on in the said event.

In all probabilities too, I will also be there in Tagaytay, a nice reunion if ever for the three of us.

Now that will be good.

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Lito Cinco