The SAC Awards
If the U.S. has the Oscars and Grammy Awards which were held not too long ago on separate days, we in Cebu Sports have our own version too. It’s called the San Miguel Brewery-Sportswriters Association of Cebu Cebu Sports Awards, an annual recognition of the top Cebu-based athletes and Cebuanos who excel in their respective fields both in the country and abroad. On Tuesday, March 7, the SM City Cebu hosts the 35th edition of our awards ceremony where we recognize the best performers of 2016. They are the athletes who we cover in the sports beat and learn to respect and admire not only for their achievements but for what they bring to the table for Cebu.
When June Mar Fajardo won his record-tying fifth Player of the Conference Award for the latest PBA Conference, he raises the banner of Cebu with him, doesn’t he? Who would’ve thought that a simple, low-profile and humble athlete from Pinamungajan would be the PBA’s most dominant player today? And he didn’t even take the Manila route to the PBA. When Mary Joy Tabal crowned herself as the country’s marathon queen and made an appearance at the Rio Olympics, did we sportswriters have an inkling that this sprinter from Guba would eventually switch to dominate the long-distance running scene? And to think that she once passed out in a 10K run?
And how can we forget Donnie “Ahas” Nietes? We just can’t now, can we? This is why we are giving him the SMB-SAC Hall of Fame Award. He was once a janitor at the ALA Boxing Gym but today is the Pinoy world champion with the longest reign as a world champ. Again, did we ever imagine he would be Cebu Boxing’s bet to achieve this feat? Did we ever foresee that he would be at the same level as another Cebuano names Gabriel “Flash” Elorde? Certainly not. But it happened and so proud are we of his contributions to Philippine sports over-all.
Nietes, Fajardo and Tabal lead the pack of athletes who we are recognizing on Tuesday for their achievements in 2016. They carried the colors of Cebu sports with great pride, and for this we are grateful. And this is own little way of giving them credit for what they’ve done. We’re giving them simple trophies and certificates, mere tokens I must add, but these represent so much more of our respect, gratitude and admiration. We are recognizing athletes from Athletics to Weightlifting (that’s in alphabetical order) and splitting them into major awardees and citations. The major awardees are those who did the most “damage” in their sport, setting or raising the bar for the rest to follow. Some of them won big competitions, made it to the national team and shone brightly overseas. In boxing, major awardees Marlon Tapales (WBO), Johnriel Casimero (IBF) and Milan Melindo (IBF) won world championships in their respective weight divisions, while those who won WBO and WBF regional championships like Jack Tepora, Kenny Demecillo, Mark Magsayo, Neil John Tabanao, Jason Pagara, Jimmy Paypa, Jessie Espinas and Arthur Villanueva will get citations.
In basketball, CESAFI champions UV and SHS-Ateneo de Cebu will get citations and so will CESAFI MVPs Rey Suerte and Jed Colonia, Batang Gilas national Under 18 players Joshua Sinclair, JB Bahio and Joshua Flores. How often will we have three Cebu-bred players as part of the national team? Football also has a bunch of players who made it to various national age-group teams, an indicator that Cebu is producing national-caliber players through its home-grown programs. Alexandrea Gumilao, Joaquin Buyco, Trevor Lood, Joaquin Suarez, Pietre Dakay, Marcel Ivan Ouano, Jesse Semblante, Leo Maquiling, Valentino Calvo, Major Dean Ebarle, Lorenzo Giuseppe Genco, Julian Miranda, Jordan Jarvis, Kintaro Miyagi, and Vincent Erik Lovitos were all called up to don the colors in international football competitions.
The list of awardees includes athletes who you may not know but are those who we cover for our various sports pages. They come from archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, batted sports, body building, boxing, chess, cycling, dancesport, extreme sports, football, golf, gymnastics, judo, karate, karting, muay thai, running, motor sports, rugby, sepak takraw, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, scrabble, wakeboarding and weightlifting. This is the time of the year when the sportswriters bump into athletes not on the playing field, but in a unique awarding ceremony that takes place on a stage and not on a podium with the usual 1-2-3 markings.
When the ceremony comes to a close, we always remind all awardees that sports is not the end by itself or the ultimate goal in life. It’s a just a means to make oneself a better person so he or she can make an impact on society. The true trophies are not those that they win and display in their homes. The real trophy is the person himself. By being a winner in sports, they should also become winners in life.
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