AFTER expanding its School for Sports program, the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) and the Department of Education (DepED) Cebu can finally test if there are improvements when the 16 school districts in Cebu City participate in the Unit Meets next month.

The School in Sports program started last year with 25 coaches hired as job order employees paid out of the Special Education Fund. The pool was expanded to 50 coaches starting this year. The move is DepEd’s answer to the perennial problem of public schools having only part-time coaches unlike private schools, which have full-time coaches.

“If you are a teacher and you have to coach part-time, sometimes the training of the athletes gets left behind because of other responsibilities, unlike the private school coaches who can focus full time,” DepEd Cebu sports coordinator Francis Ramirez said.

Under the program, the JOs—some of whom are private school coaches, former athletes or those who have undergone training to coach—are assigned to train both the potential teachers-coaches and the students and are paid under the legal minimum wage.

“The private school coaches involved are those who don’t have any conflict with their schedules,” he said.

The program started at the Cebu City Central School (CCCS) and Abellana National School (ANS) last year and was expanded to the elementary schools in Regino Mercado, Tejero, Punta Princesa, Tisa, Labangon, Guadalupe and Zapatera this year.

“They (JO coaches) don’t go to a particular school every day since it’s a two-in-one program. They train the potential athletes and at the same time, the teacher. In case the teacher has learned the program and is capable of training on his or her own, the JO coach will concentrate on another school. We do it this way since we plan to expand again next year. However, the coach will still monitor the progress of the teacher and the students,” said Ramirez.

Next year, Ramirez said they are planning to include Mabolo and Lahug.

“In the next school year, maybe we can add public schools in Lahug and Mabolo. We hope to find potential athletes there since these public schools have a lot of students. We are taking this program one step at a time,” Ramirez said.

The School in Sports program is focused on individual events like athletics, swimming and arnis.

“So far, based on the assessment of the coaches, the performance of the athletes have improved, especially in swimming and in arnis,” said Ramirez.

Ramirez said that some of the students under the program have begun joining invitational swimming meets in Tagbilaran and Dumaguete and have won medals, while others also won in arnis in the Batang Pinoy.

“For swimming, they train every afternoon at the Cebu City Sports Center. Most of them are Grade 5 and 6 students of City Central and some are from Abellana,” he said.

Ramirez said the focus is in the elementary level so as to provide a feeder pool for the high school level.

“Before, we had some good swimmers in Abellana but no one was able to replace them once they graduated because we had no feeder program,” he said.

Since they are JO employees who get six-month contracts, the coaches will undergo evaluation from a committee made up of members of the CCSC and DepEd Cebu.

“Their performance will be evaluated whether they will be rehired. The evaluation will be based on the number of athletes they trained, the performance of these athletes. Whether they have improved or have gotten better, not necessarily if they have won medals. Though if they win a medal, that’s a bonus,” he said.

And the first major test for the athletes and coaches under the expanded Program will be when the 16 school districts combine to compete in the eight Unit Meets.

“That will also serve as sort of our testing ground, if their performance have improved,” Ramirez said.

For this year, the public school athletes and teachers have the added advantage of not meeting any counterparts from the big private schools since the elementary athletes of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. members will compete directly in the City Olympics. With a report from RSC