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Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Pages: Champions are made by Presence more than Presents
By John Pages
Match Point
“KIDS spell love T-I-M-E.” This is the unwritten motto of Dino Siso and his wife Sally. Theirs is a family story so amazing it may one day be engraved in the record books of Wimbledon.
Dino and Sally are not tennis champions. They never were. He first gripped that racket late in life, in college “just to sweat,” he says. She has never even swung a string of forehand or backhand topspin shots.
So here’s the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not story: In the Siso home reside not one, not two, but three of the country’s top junior tennis players.
The year was 1998 and Sun.Star Cebu in need of players to suit up for the Tri-Medialympics. Although he hasn’t held a racket in years, Dino Siso pulls out a pen and jots his name down. He grabs a dusty old frame and buys a tin can of balls.
“Then I started hitting,” Dino recalls. His only son, Bernardine (nicknamed “Niño), would tag along.
“Whenever I’d sit down to rest, Niño would grab my racket,” the dad says of his son, who then stood barely as tall as the net. “He’d drag it to the court then start hitting.”
Niño was five-years-old.
“He wouldn’t stop. He just loved it so much that he kept on hitting and hitting. Soon, he was the one reminding me of my sessions. As soon as we’d park the car, he’d rush to the court to hit shots before I do. He’d beg me to play,” Dino recalls.
What did dad do? “I looked for the club’s best coach to train him. Never mind if I paid P500 every night just for his training.”
For three months non-stop, from five to seven each night, Niño never failed to swing that racket.
Each night, dad was never far behind. Without his knowing it, Dino practiced what the parenting guru Dr. Benjamin Spock espoused, “The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.”
And so, at six-years-old, Niño enters his first-ever event, the Adidas Cup in Cagayan de Oro. Then he joins another. And another. Traveling to Tacloban, Davao, Bais.
That summer of 2000, he captured his first title in Manila followed by five others. By the end of that run, against much taller 10-year-olds, he turned RP No.1. He’s only eight.
Who stood beside Niño? His dad. For he knew that kids spell love T-I-M-E.
Fast forward to just one week ago, Nino’s younger sister Sally Mae, the country’s No.1 in the 10-years-old and Under category, bagged three gold medals in three events at the Malaysian Junior Open in Langkawi City.
“Her opponents were some of the best in Asia,” says the proud dad. “She competed against the top players from Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Mongolia. Some were trained in Spain. A few were Russians and Americans.”
When I called Dino the day before Christmas, he was elated. “We’ve been so busy since Em-Em (Sally Mae) arrived,” he says. “She was given an award by Gov. Gwen Garcia, then interviewed by Bombo Radyo, the newspapers, and GMA 7. We even had to ask ABS-CBN to postpone their taping after New Year’s.”
How good is Sally Mae? In the finals, she annihilated Mongolia’s No.1, 6-2, 6-0. Before that, a smashing 6-2, 6-2 win over Indonesia’s top bet.
Who stood beside her in Malaysia? Her mom. For she knew that kids spell love T-I-M-E.
To date, the Siso home is filled with trophies that even Santa will find hard to stock in his bag.
Niño owns 75 trophies (51 of them champion) and 39 medals. Sally Mae owns 31 trophies and 26 gold medals. Their eldest sister, Sallydine, owns eight trophies and medals.
Sally Mae is 10 years old, Niño is 11, and Sallydine is 12. They’re not even teenagers but they own a combined over 150 trophies and medals.
Here’s something I admire even more about this family: the children are not tennis robots, eating balls and sleeping with rackets. Dino and Sally make sure that equal—if not more—importance is on academics. Niño loves to read books and enjoys drawing. TV watching isn’t outlawed, but the kids aren’t addicted either.
It’s hard to imagine the sacrifices Dino and Sally have endured for their children.
Dino was a pioneer at Superbalita since the leading paper first saw print in 1994. He continues to log in countless hours working as reporter. But whenever he’d have free time, that’s all spent for the children. Wife Sally does it full time. In training or in tournaments, they’re present.
Months back, the city organized a USPTA Coaches Seminar and guess who sat among the students? Dino Siso. When I offered tennis magazines and books to study, guess who grabbed them? Dino Siso.
Years back, the couple operated a barbeque station and engaged in the dressed chicken dealership business.
“But since they competed, traveling all over the country, including two full months in Manila every summer,” Dino admits, “we’ve shut down the business because we can’t be with the kids.”
Dino and Sally know the formula. They know how to build champions. They have three of them at home. What formula?
The more T-I-M-E you spend, the more champions you get spelled S-I-S-O.
(john@playhouse.edu.ph)
(December 28, 2004 issue)
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