CVIRAA 2016

And so another CVIRAA has come and gone in the City of Naga. It’s the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association, the regional qualifier for the annual Palarong Pambansa. To those who aren’t too familiar with the set-up, this is organized, managed and run by the Department of Education which has a multi-million peso budget for this series of sports events. It all starts from the bottom at the district or unit levels, goes up to the Division Meets to the regionals (CVIRAA) and on to the final stop at the Palarong Pambansa. The competition series is school-based, split into two divisions: Elementary and Secondary (High School) levels; with ceiling age limits for both. The City of Naga hosted the CVIRAA for DepEd Region 7 while Legaspi, Albay will host the Palarong Pambansa in April. The Palaro is thus the climax of the series and a competition among the different DepEd divisions across the country. It’s a bragging rights party to determine the DepEd region with the best sports teams in the land.

On paper, the DepEd series is an excellent venue to promote sports, develop the grassroots, and provide a venue for the best athletes to shine. When you have the region’s best athletes converge at the CVIRAA, it’s like an All-Star game packed in one week of competitions. While it may not be perfect, it remains to be the only sporting event that reaches out far and wide, and provides athletes a chance to perform at the highest level. This is true especially for those areas that have limited access to sports (a chance to join a team and join competitions).

On a scale of ten, the recent CVIRAA could be rated between six to seven. Since the CVIRAA has been there ever since we were still elementary and high school students (not too long ago), I’d like to see it develop and level up to becoming a genuine sports event that can claim to be the best in the land. Let’s see the CVIRAA achieve a score of 10. And this involves more than just sports per se. Every CVIRAA seems to be hit hard with the usual concerns and complaints. Don’t get me wrong. The CVIRAA is an excellent venue for sports. However, it can also become so much better. I pray that the DepEd looks into this with the goal of continuously finding ways to level up.

Officiating is always a concern among the different sports event. While teams accept this as reality, the DepED should seriously look at ways to improve the craft of its officials. I wish they can tie up with the different national sports associations for continuous training and refresher courses. But this shouldn’t stop there. They should also get exposure through officiating at games outside of the DepEd series. They seem to be limited to the DepED network and don’t officiate at other events. In Cebu alone, most of the CVIRAA events also have other and more competitions being held throughout the year. Are the CVIRAA officials present in these events?

I also wish the CVIRAA would do away with the age-old practice of making athletes wait under the heat of the sun at the opening ceremony. Poor athletes. They come to compete but are made to wait under the sun for a ceremony that’s designed to prop up VIPs and politicians. Do our athletes deserve this? Development of venues is always a problem. At the recent CVIRAA, all the talk was bout the P68 million peso sports complex, but did they talk about playing volleyball outdoors under the sun? At the venue for elementary basketball, the court was like a skating rink as the players slid all over the court due to the presence of dust. While it isn't right to make the venue as an excuse for losing, the CVIRAA must find ways to provide the best venues possible for players to shine, develop and be safe from injury.

And how can we forget about security. The Sunday dawn incident at the billeting area of Mandaue City wasn’t a good way to start the sports meet. While it didn’t get blown out of proportion, I’m sure it didn’t send a good signal about Naga as a host. It was good that they added more policemen and security personnel to the area. We’re also glad that no other major incident happened during the games. Police visibility was high and traffic personnel were on hand to manage the large volume of vehicles that converged on Naga. Parking was a concern for those with vehicles in the sports complex area but there was no problem at the Baywalk area. Many opted to park at the Baywalk area then walk to the sports oval or take a trisikad.

Accommodations are always a concern every year. While delegations are assigned to public schools of a host town or city, there should be ways to also improve their conditions: adequate ventilation, clean comfort rooms, beds, electric fans, etcetera. The key here is to provide the athletes with a place where they are comfortable, can rest after a long day and prepare for the next. This brings back to mind an old proposal that all provinces must have a complete sports complex with accommodations facilities. These sports centers can then rotate the CVIRAA hosting every year. If we can have this, we would’ve solved concerns with security, venue and accommodations, wouldn’t we?

When the dust cleared, Cebu City expectedly took the over-all championship with 113 gold medals, 71 silver medals and 59 bronzes. But that’s a given. Cebu City is supposed to win every single CVIRAA. They have all the major private schools with sports programs and also have the most number of student-athletes. If they didn't win the over-all championship, then something would be seriously wrong. Mandaue, Bohol Province, Cebu Province and Lapu-Lapu City rounded up the top five, a logical sequence reflecting these divisions’ sports programs although Bohol did give the others a scare when they took the lead early in the week. This medal standings serve as a guide for opportunity areas that the different divisions can look into when reviewing its sports programs.

Congratulations to the CVIRAA, DepEd and the City of Naga. It’s time to move on to the Palaro, but also find ways to make the CVIRAA bigger and better more than ever.