Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Of winners and lossers
By Keith Appari Bacalso
Marietta Lafavilla, mother of three, finds that squabbles among her children do not really pose that much of a challenge, considering that she referees boxing matches for a living. Boxing? Yes. Boxing.
Marietta, a PE instructor at Southwestern University (SWU) got into sports due to her love for dancing. “Back when I was in highschool, I used to dance a lot, so, when I went to college, I chose to major in physical education knowing that it would be a venue for me to continue my passion for dancing.”
Soon after enrolling in college, she got involved with other sports, an involvement that would, years later, translate into a Master’s Degree in Physical Education, but “even before high school, I remember being always interested in sports, especially boxing, I find the sport so exciting and exhilarating, being the fast-paced sport that it is.” She never did get to pick-up a pair of gloves though, “boxing takes a lot of training and it didn’t fit in my schedule,” and so she contented herself with watching the sport. That is, until a few years back when the PE faculty of SWU was invited to a seminar on the basics of refereeing a boxing match. As fate would have it, she was the only one available and of course, she never did let opportunity knock twice.
Soon after, she became a certified referee and was invited to join two boxers in a ring for the first time. She would soon find out that she would not only declare the winners for the matches that she would officiate in, she also found out that she’d be declared a winner herself, for being the best referee in the tournament, that is. “It turns out that I have to be as quick on my feet and keen with my eyes like the boxers are so that I can be able to make the right calls.” While the boxers were being sent overseas to fight in tournaments, Marietta herself was sent overseas as well as part of the Philippine contingent of referees to help officiate at the tournaments. It’s a tough job, especially since boxing is mostly a man’s sport, but someone has got to do it, and do it often too, “if I don’t officiate often, I kind of rust around the edges. Especially since I officiate at amateur tournaments, where the rules are stricter, I really have to be in the ring often to keep myself sharp.”
One time in a championship match, she got knocked down herself, “the ring was so slippery from the previous matches that while I was moving around to keep a better eye on the boxers, I slipped,” but they never could keep her down nor count her out because, “I got up really quickly because the boxers were still at it and I had to do my job, good thing I only came out with a bruised little finger.” And that is why although no one keeps an official record of her career as a mother, teacher and referee as one would a champion boxer, through her ups and downs, Marietta always ends up the winner.
(October 8, 2003 issue)
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