Dacawi: Peppot is happy

Friday, December 23, 2011

THE late football coach and Gold Ore weekly paper editor Jose “Peppot” Ilagan must be smiling from up there in the great newsroom and playing field in the sky. Things are looking up from down here, at least for three reasons.

First were three of his boys – midfielder Albert Martin, his brother and striker Jimmy and defender and goalie Edward Dait – recently came home with playing shoes, balls, uniforms and socks to prop up those who took over from them chasing dreams at the Burnham Park football grounds.

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“This is the first but not the last (shipment),” Albert told current local football promoters led by Baguio Football Association vice-president Virgie Tibaldo-Bunggay during the equipment turn-over Sunday evening at the regional office of the Philippine Information Agency beside The (President’s) Mansion.

Jimmy arrived home from Pennsylvania while Albert and Edward flew in from Vancouver, Canada where they had knocked on doors of friends and neighbors for the assortment of new and hand-me-down football gear.

Most of the equipment came from Filipino and Cordillera expatriates in Vancouver.

Second was young couple Alex and Annabelle Bangsoy of Goshenland Realty just raised the level of business sponsorship in the world’s most popular sports event but which has yet to be fully appreciated by this country of midgets fallen heads over heels for basketball.

Aside from bankrolling the Mayor Domogan Cup last July and the combined Mayor Domogan-Rep. Bernardo Vergara Street Kids Tournament-for-a-Cause that saw over 90 teams playing until last Sunday, the couple also had the Goshenland staff help run the two multi-bracketed competitions.

With the help of friends, the couple rounded up early this year some of the city’s rugby-sniffing street kids and turned them into a football team, providing them tutorials and building the groundwork for a home for these boys trying to extricate themselves from poverty and broken homes.

Third reason was respected coach Manny Javellana traveled from his native Bacolod to watch Sunday afternoon the Cinderellas, the girls squad he formed trained to national prominence in the ‘80s, fight to a 2-2- draw with the younger squad from the Benguet State University.

The game at the Brent School grounds came hours after the two teams received their first and runner-up trophies in the ladies division of the tournament-for-a-cause. The goodwill match was arranged to honor Javellana, the Martin brothers, Dait and other members of the men’s squad during coach Ilagan’s time.

So named for having to scrounge for funds just to reach the playing venues during their prime, the Cinderellas, many of whom are now mothers and grandmothers, stood their ground until age began taking its toll, allowing the BSU girls to equalize.

After the match, Javellana walked down to Brent’s playing field for a photo with his wards and their children, now grown to become budding players themselves. The BSU girls, together with a teen-aged squad from Pinget, which debuted with a third–place finish in the Domogan-Vergara Cup, then joined them for the photographs.

Later at the turn-over of the gear, Albert recalled how Dait and teammate Sammy Torres proved themselves the country’s best goalies, especially when the Baguio squad defeated Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo which, until now, lays claim to being the country’s football capital.

Torres remembered sleeping and waking up at the Melvin Jones Grandstand for the precious time to play, how he struggled to rip his passion away from the game just to be able to concentrate on his studies and finish a course.

You get addicted to football, but that passion should only be second to graduating from college, he told the younger players.

For Aris Bocalan and Gatan Dalang, the street kids’ coaches, football did open up a scholarship that enabled him to graduate from Ateneo de Manila before coming home to serve.

Beyong coaching in the field, Aris and Annaliza Umoc-Cabanilla, the Cinderellas’ playing coach, agreed to introduce next year indoor football (futsal) to inmates of the city jail.

Another reason to believe Peppot will be smiling from up there this New Year. (E-mail: mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments.)