Philippines sports to follow Cuba template

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Sports Commission will collaborate with the Siklab Foundation in producing a group of coaches, trainers and sports managers that will be tasked to spot gems in the rough among K12 students.

“We have a total of 27 million students from 43,000 schools in our country. If we concentrate on getting them qualified coaches and trainers and managers, it will give us a bigger chance to get good athletes from this massive pool,” said PSC chair William “Butch” Ramirez.

For it to work, Ramirez said the PSC and other government agencies like the Department of Education will need to work hand in hand with the Siklab Foundation, a non-profit group under Presidential Adviser for Sports Dennis Uy, that seeks to win the very first Olympic gold medal for the country.

This came after no less than President Duterte himself mentioned in his State of the Nation Address last week the need to come up with a national sports academy.

Ramirez said they are applying almost the same style of Cuba, which has a great track record in the Olympics.

“Cuba is not a rich country, but it has a sports institute where all their coaches graduated before training their athletes. It’s basically the same program all over Europe, the United States and Australia,’’ said Ramirez.

The project will also get the involvement of the United States Sports Academy (USSA) in Alabama.

Dr. Serge Opena, the PSC’s national grassroots sports development consultant, said the PSC will be bankrolling the first batch of 100 coaches, trainers and managers that will get training and certificates at USSA.

Opena said the 100 coaches, who will be handpicked by the DepEd from different regions, will then pass on to Filipino athletes the curriculum set by the USSA.

The 100 participants will undergo a three-day lecture and another three-day coaching clinic from the USSA and PSC starting Aug. 19 at the PSI building at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

“We need all the help we can get. In two years, the target will be around 300 trainers and coaches,” said Opena.

Prof. Henry Daut, the deputy national training director of the Philippine Sports Institute, the grassroots development arm of the PSC, will also be on hand to provide support along with the University of the Philippines College of Human Kinetics.