Limpag: Philippine Sports Academy

WHILE many in sports were quick to thank President Rodrigo Duterte when he mentioned his support for the planned Philippine Sports Academy for High School, I’m going to wait until I’m going to hear something more concrete.

You see, a sports academy isn’t something new. They had an academy set up for football a few years ago, but it failed and the reason would surprise you—education.

Save for some young elite basketball players, the primary objective of students in sports—and their parents—is to get that coveted athletic scholarship in college and the football academy failed because the parents of the kids, some of whom were from private schools, felt the partner institution of the U17 team in the early 2000s, wouldn’t give their kids the right tools when they get into college.

Now, will the Philippine Sports Academy address such concern? Right now, the only two viable pro careers in sports are volleyball and basketball. You can add football if somehow the Philippine Football League is still around when the school gets set up.

Also, these days, the biggest recruiter of talents from the provinces are the big Manila universities, which can dangle a direct path to a college degree to the young talents spot in the Palarong Pambansa. To entice the top talents, since I assume such school will be for the best of the best in the country, a Philippine Sports Academy needs something similar it can offer to the parents.

Of course, this is not to say I am against a Philippine Sports Academy. I just hope it gets the proper footing and the right people will run it. It has to be free, too, from political leanings. It’s a Philippine reality. Just like in politics, in sports, you have to be aligned with the present administration to be in position and to be able to run the affairs in Philippine sports. Will the Academy be an extension of the Philippine Sports Commission? Whose chairman changes every change in administration?

I assume such academy is going to recruit the best and the brightest students from the provinces, so I hope it will also have the best and the brightest coaches the country can offer, not those who are near the powers-that-be.

We’ve seen too many a coach get neglected over favored ones of officials, and I hope that won’t happen in the academy.

There are three years left in the Duterte administration. I hope that will be ample time to set this one up.