Leveling up sports events

CEBU, Philippines — When you think about a sports event for the youth, more specifically an mini-Olympic style multi-sport event, what image comes out? The automatic top-of-mind image will most likely be that of games being played. No more, no less. Basketball, volleyball, football and the usual stuff. Teams play games. The games run for a week and a champion is declared at the end of the event. Simple and straightforward. Now if you want to have a truly meaningful, memorable and life-changing sports event, is that image of games enough? The irony of the usual sports events is that they state textbook objectives about building camaraderie, fellowship, personal growth, etc. But are these objectives truly met?

Don’t look now, but there’s a need to re-asses, review and challenge the status quo of the way we do things. This was one of the considerations when a group of athletic directors and coordinators got together to brainstorm on how to make the Jesuit Athletic Meet more meaningful and truly worthwhile. Coming from all over the country, this bleacher bum had the opportunity touch base with colleagues from other Ateneo schools nationwide: From Metro Manila came Ateneo de Manila and Xavier School. From Bicol, Ateneo de Naga was present.

From Mindanao, Ateneo de Davao, Ateneo de Zamboanga and Xavier University/Ateneo de Cagayan came. And from the Visayas were Sta. Maria Catholic School-Ateneo de Iloilo and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu. The JAM is an annual sports event that brings together all the Jesuit-run schools for a week of sports competitions. In the past, the main feature were all the sports events per se, and who would come out as champion for a particular event. It was all about bragging rights as to which Jesuit school had the best teams in whatever sport. Competition was tough, fierce and intense. Then after a series of JAMs came the reality check if the event was meeting the objectives for which this was established in the first place. The truth may hurt and maybe, just maybe, the objectives of this kind of a sports meet weren’t met.

The common thought was that there had to be more than just sports if the event was to build camaraderie, fellowship and make everyone a better person over-all. If the event was to be meaningful for a participant, this event had to be memorable, transformative, engaging. Ateneo de Davao Athletic Director Noli Ayo coined is as “TEAM.” The event had to be transformative, engaging, Ateneo-driven and meaningful. After all, isn’t that the real role of sports? Isn’t sports a means to build character, improve oneself, transform oneself?

This presented the need for a deeper and more formation-oriented holistic approach to sports. Yes, one can and will win trophies. But what good are these trophies if one turns out to be selfish, self-centered and without any traces of goodness? There was a need to innovate, dare to be different, set the bar and level up. But how? For starters, a paradigm shift is a must.

If one believes that sports events are all about winning the gold medal, then think again. Ateneo de Manila Athletic Director Em Fernandez shared how their thrust is to push and help their student-athletes to excel in both academics and sports. While they don’t demand for cum laude graduates from their student-athletes, they provide them the opportunities to record the highest possible marks/grades. Funny, but it has finally sunk in on us. When Tab Baldwin demanded that all his players must do well in class, he was dead serious and not just building “pogi points.” With this as a (re)starting point, it would be easier for organizing sports events with loftier goals beyond winning trophies.

When organizing sports events, more opportunities must be provided for student-athletes to grow. A forum or summit for student-athletes is an activity that can be conducted.

A competent guest speaker can give a talk while workshops can be conducted among all the participants. Ditto for the coaches who also need to sharpen their saws, being formators themselves. If we want to produce competent and student-athletes with character, it’s only proper that our coaches are role models themselves. Tough but not impossible. In the realm of building fellowship and gaining new friends, there’s a need for more off-the-court activities for all athletes. At the Mindanao Peace Games spearheaded by Ayo, they have a movie night where the athletes, coaches and event organizers go watch a movie together (after a tough day of games earlier in the day). The MPG’s tagline? Kalaro. Kaibigan. Kasama. Not kalaban. Not opponent or foe. A typical day of a sports event should now include more activities over and above the games. Can team-building activities be done? Why not?

Are we all ready to take a different approach towards sports events? And do something about it?