CCSC’s new project

Saturday, February 11, 2012

CEBU City Sports Commission’s (CCSC) comprehensive batted sports program is off and running.

CCSC chairman Edward Hayco and executive director Brando Velasquez watched more than 50 kids from four school districts get their basic lessons from the volunteer trainers lead by Dionisio Bacarisas and PH Blu Boys member Ben Maravilles at the Labangon Elementary School gymnasium during the opening of a program aimed to discover new talents.

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“This is overwhelming and very inspiring to watch these kids learn the basics and I would like to thank the volunteer coaches for helping us. This is Brando’s brainchild and he is very dedicated in doing this,” Hayco told Sun.Star Cebu.

CCSC asked Department of Education Cebu City to choose 15 boys and 15 girls to be trained every Saturday.

“That is 30 per school district. We asked them to give us players as young as Grade 2 and from these kids, we will form the pool for little league baseball and softball teams of Cebu City,” Velasquez said.

The kids are from Mambaling, Pardo, Punta Princesa and Labangon school districts, while Tejero Elementary School also joined the launching event yesterday.

Skills

Most of them had zero skills in catching, throwing and batting but Velasquez is optimistic the selected players will learn quickly while those who already have the skills will get better.

“From here, we will organize more tournaments for these kids and by May we will have tournaments for them during the Cebu City Sports Festival,” Velasquez said.

Next week, it will be the turn of the kids from the north district.

“Next week, we will be in Talamban for the north school district players but these kids will continue their training here,” Velasquez said.

CCSC identified Labangon Elementary School and Talamban Elementary School as the common training ground for baseball and softball players for the south and north school districts, respectively.

Aside from training, the participating schools also got equipment like gloves, balls and bats.

CCSC brought with him the more than 50 donated gloves that were left untouched at the Cebu City Sports Center stock room and the equipment that was donated by Jesse Bernad of Fastball Batting Cages.

“These gloves were left un-touched at the sports center store room for years, dating since the time of Koko Holganza. These are also donated for his baseball program while the others were used equipment from the US like bats, head gears, body protectors, gloves and balls donated by Bernad,” Velasquez said.