Palasan: Sports investment

PRINTED in a t-shirt is the line “Tennis is life.” Well, that holds true for all sports be it tennis, basketball, boxing, or triathlon. The larger more encompassing phrase would be: “Sports is life.”

Take out basketball, boxing, golf, tennis, and even “patintero” in our daily lives. You will see kids hooked on their smartphones, adults boozing every day to while the time. Imagine cable TV without the Ultimate Fighting Challenge, grand slam tennis, NBA, and the football world cup. What you will have are news and movies that range from the gory to the teary scenes.

Life without sports is gray, sorrowful state. The world cup of soccer has fans throughout the globe hooked on their cable TV. They are oftentimes raucous spectators. If they don't have soccer to while their time, and to exhaust their energies, imagine the violence in the streets they would have created.

For this reason, and countless more, government programs cannot do without sports in the agenda. Work and play, indeed interplay. After working eight hours, and even more daily, the workers have to find outlets to let off steam of stresses. Sports is not only good for mental health but for the body as well.

The kids too, they who have still inexhaustible need to channel their energies to more productive activities. Or else, they will channel their energies to destructive activities like drinking and drugs.

People without sports tend to be restless, depressive, and bored. These three ingredients make for violent kids and men. Take-out sports, you will surely see crime statistics soaring to the roofs. Sports and criminality take an inverse proportional relation. The more people are engaged in sports, the less violent they become, hence, lower crime rate. The inverse is true. Science supports this conclusion.

All governments cannot take aside sports in the development agenda. People's well-being is a government imperative.

This, Cagayan de Oro City, cannot sidestep. Mayor Oscar Moreno, a sportsman himself, understands very well the language of this write-up.

Except for boxing, however, it seems, the other sports discipline have not been given attention to. The result of the Batang Pinoy sportsfest this year does not augur well for sports program in the city.

For triathletes though, the restoration of Lawndale spring resort is a welcome development. After swimming, athletes can readily ride on their bikes or run. Unfortunately, the resort management decided to open it only at eight in the morning. Athletes who are working find this inconvenient. Understandably, the triathletes are writing the letter to the good mayor to have the resort open at six in the morning.

Now to tennis. Nazareth Lawn Tennis courts have been training ground for international champion Francis Casey Alcantara, and national champion Junjun Alere is rumored to see closure by the Nazareth barangay officials.

It must be noted that Nazareth Lawn Tennis courts have produced not only international champions but world-class caliber coaches who are now earning a living abroad, the likes of Dewey Mosqueda, Allan Melendez, Ike Mosqueda, Roel Pacana and others.

It is likewise the home court of Philippine Tennis Academy - CDO, which is a foundation, which has produced Roxanne Resma who is now on university varsity scholarship in Hawaii, and other varsity players in the top schools of Manila such as Lynette Palasan, Nikki de Dios, Titan Llavore, Aubrey Calma, Angke Tumanda and many others.

If the rumor is true, may be Congressman Rufus Rodriguez can take a second look of the plan to construct a building in the tennis courts. Surely, being a tennis player himself, he understands where these tennisters are coming from.

On a positive note, we have two political leaders who play sports, and who understand the role of sports in social order. Mayor Oca and Congressman Rufus, in their hearts, know the meaning of the phrase, “Sports is life.”

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