SOME things never change.

Philippine Sports Commissioner( PSC) Fritz Gaston and I made an overnight trip to Mindoro Occidental last Monday, taking a one hour plane ride to San Jose then an hour and a half land trip to Sablayan.

This municipality, which is the biggest in the country in terms of land area, is the venue for the on-going provincial sports meet that attracted an estimated more than 10,000 athletes and officials from the 11 participating towns and municipalities.

Last year, Sablayan hosted the Mindoro- Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan ( MIMAROPA) competition with Mamburao as next year’s regional meet host. Sablayan emerged champion in the 2023 provincial meet and will be a contender to retain the overall championship again this year.

Comm. Fritz was invited by first termer Sablayan Mayor Walter Marquez who turned out to be a boxing promoter too , in fact he informed us when we first met at the Sablayan Sports Complex, the biggest in the province, that Manny Pacquiao fought his first two fights here way back.

And on January next year, a much different Manny will visit Sablayan to celebrate his 30th year in boxing, and I am sure he will like the idea of the Mayor to build a statue for him here.

Anyway, back to the provincial sports meet where Comm. Fritz delivered an inspirational talk during the opening ceremonies that started past 4 PM with a parade of athletes, and finished night time, capped by a unity dinner for the delegation officials.

Among the speakers before Comm. Fritz were Congressman Odie Tarriela, Gov. Eduardo Gadiano, Vice Gov. Aniceta Tayag, Mayor Marquez, Sablayan Vice Mayor Edwin Mintu, and DepEdSchools Division Superintendent Loida Adornado.

We were seated with provincial Governor Gadiano during the dinner after the ceremonies and I learned he was the one who started the Sablayan Sports Complex that took 4 years to finish and plans now are to build a sports coliseum that can accommodate 15,000 people.

Mayor Marquez earlier shared his plans to set up a regional sports training center and a sports academy for regional athletes, projects that are aligned with the PSC’s mandate, the academy might even open later this year.

On his part, Comm. Gaston invited Mayor Marquez to the National Sports Academy in the New Clark City in Tarlac.

The good Mayor also expressed a strong interest to host the Batang Pinoy in the future, sane with the regional Indigenous People Games, considering Mindoro is home to the Mangyans and Comm. Gaston welcomed the hosting offer .

The following morning, we woke up early to catch up with the CebuPac flight at 8 30 AM, and lo and behold, before 6 AM, the competition had already started with the 3000m. run for girls, which was good because of the sumner heat.

And this is where I saw that some things may never change in sports, early in my sportswriting career, I got a chance to interview one great runner in the late 70’s and early 80’s, Arsenia Sagaray, she was then running in bare feet but it never bothered her.

That was the same thing I saw again, young provincial athletes running barefeet on the track and one of the local people we talked to said a lot of their girl athletes did not really want to wear track shoes after being so accustomed to running barefoot.

This is what grassroots sports is for me, young athletes in the provinces, starting with barangay or city meets, then moving forward to provincial meets with the best athletes representing their provinces in the regional meets, later on becoming national athletes and fulfilling their dreams of making it to the national teams of whatever sport they chose.

Again I hear the same complaints from province -based coaches and officials , that Manila-based schools are recruitng their best athletes.

But I told them that is the reality in sports here, provincial athletes can develop their skills in the secondary levels but will end up in Manila as athletic scholars, once economics enter the picture, it will be difficult for recruited talents to refuse tempting offers from NCR- based schools, what more in women’s volleyball where good players have hundreds of thousands of reasons to join the professional ranks. It is what it is.

But people like Gov. Gadiano and Mayor Marquez deserve credit for their efforts to support sports and produce provincial champions.

And Comm. Fritz and I promised ourselves to go back to Sablayan and enjoy for a cgange what the place has to offer to tourists, including what Councilor Marfinn Dulay described as the country’s longest zip line.

As it was, our stay was so short there that we did not have the time to go around the province and see what thay have to offer to travelers.

Thanks again to Mayor Marquez and his people who took care of us there, specially Coun. Dulay who fetched us early morning of Monday and brought us there again for the return trip to the San Jose Airport.

Next week, i will again be a witness to grassroots sports competition, this time upon the invitation of Laoag Mayor Mike Keon for the R1AA competition in his city.

See you people there.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Lito Cinco