The new board

It wasn’t as smooth as hoped, but the Cebu Football Association (CFA) elected a new set of directors last Saturday at the Sarossa Hotel.

The top five – Rodney Orale of ERCO, Ricky Dakay of CAFC, Raffy Musni (CAFC), Glenn Quisido (CAFC), and SHS-Ateneo de Cebu’s Rico Navarro will be serving for four years.

The four others elected into the board – Michael Veloso of Springdale, Joey Herrera of USJ-R Alumni, Fr. Heinz Kuiueke of USC, and this deadline beater will be serving for two years.

The idea is for continuity. On 2014, the CFA will elect four people in the board while the five would be holdovers to ensure a smooth flow of the programs that would be implemented.

Since last weekend, there have been many people openly expressing that there would be real changes in the CFA with the new board. Many have also said that they don’t think having a board dominated by the Cebu Amateur Football Club would really solve the problem.

I have been involved in many sporting organizations for more than 20 years now and have never seen one as highly politicized as football.

I am, however, hopeful that there would be some changes for the better, but unless we get everyone to cooperate, it would really be hard to move forward.

The new board will officially assume on May 1 yet after the month-long transition period from the elections last weekend.

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It is all systems go for the Grassroots Development Program of the Cebu City Sports Commission on Monday.

I met with the volunteer coaches for judo yesterday morning at the Cebu City Sports Center and this will be the first time that we are introducing the Japanese martial art in this level.

The lessons will be primarily on falling and rolling techniques, which are geared towards helping ensure the safety of the children, who engage in sports.

Before you get to be taught how to throw, it is required that you would know how to protect yourself.

As a sporting parent and a judoka (judo practitioner), I made sure that I taught my children how to protect themselves through basic falling techniques that can be very useful even when you accidentally slip on wet floors.

Last Thursday afternoon, after my weekly acupuncture session at the clinic of Dr. Jefferson Ong, I met two other fellow judokas – Florentino ‘Intoy’ Palacio and Stephanie Seno-Medalle.

Intoy was with the USC Green and Gold Kimonos of the 1960s while Stephanie played judo at UP Cebu as part of her PE classes.

We had fun sharing our experiences in tournaments and looking back at those years when we were still actively competing. 

I hope that through introducing falling techniques to the city’s children, we might soon discover talents for the sport, which was the first Oriental martial art that became an official event of the Olympics.

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MILESTONES: Belated birthday greetings to Sandra Centino-Jones, who turned a year older last Sunday.

Belated greetings also go to my squadmate Peter Paul Marcelo and Atty. Fraulein Quijada, who celebrated last Monday.

I am also sending my belated greetings to Manna Alcaraz of Imperial Palace, Col. Jay Tindoy, April Tudtud-Ramos, and Cavalier Randolph ‘Pards’ Espejo, who turned a year older yesterday.

Today’s greetings go to Marie Jo Dromitorio-Caldoza and PAL’s Pinky Mag-iba-Balagtas.

More power to all of you! - THE FREEMAN