I WONDER if Cesafi commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy’s got a bull’s-eye on his back with the words, “controversies, here.”
For the past two years, the Cesafi commissioner has been dealing with controversies left, right, front and back.
It was all about the gray areas in 2009. So, before the 2010 season started, he said the gray areas will get their splashes of color and promised they will be free from controversies.
Maybe next time, Mr. Commish should say, “It’s going to be a controversial season?”
Just two days into the season, Commish had to deal with “threats to forfeit a game and absentminded coaches.”
First, it was the UV Baby Lancers, who didn’t know they had a game.
Second, it was the USC Warriors, who knew they had a game but didn’t have enough players.
And it’s just the first week of the basketball season?
I wonder what will happen when the other events also open?
Will we see Walkout Drama Part 2?
Or will there be a free-for-all?
I have a feeling it’s going to be a free-for-all, involving parents. Then again, I could be wrong.
The case of the USC Warriors is a sad one and coach Mike Reyes is in a predicament I’d gladly avoid.
The coach only had nine players to start the season and only seven can play. The two, nursing a fractured hand and recovering from chicken pox, are effectively out.
A fractured hand and basketball are a dangerous mix and who would want to play against someone who has chicken pox?
The team has been ordered by their school officials to play with seven—which is suicide in a tough league like Cesafi.
When the Cesafi started in 2000, the Warriors were the laughing stock, unable to win one game. Eventually, they improved and even made the finals. Now, their only chance of winning is if the other team forgets it has a game.
With seven bodies per game, USC will play not to win, but to avoid losing by a mile.
So maybe it’s time for the team to think out of the box? Why not scour the other USC teams—volleyball, football, tennis etc..—for bodies who can give up five fouls in a game? Who knows? USC might find someone, as US writers call it, who can “letter in two sports?”
This fiasco should also serve as a lesson to coaches—if the roster calls for 15 men, prepare to submit 20. Enough of the “basi mulusot diay” mentality.
By the way, I haven’t covered a Cesafi screening but all these athletes failing the eligibility test, for me, is odd. The eligibility rules weren’t made yesterday so, I reckon, if coaches or academic directors do their own screening, they know who passes or fails, right?
So why submit names of people who will fail?
FEEDBACK. My previous column “promoting” Chester Cokaliong as the next Philippine Football Federation president got this reaction from Surigao.
Alvin Anoos wrote, “Last year, some of us in Surgao City were entertaining the idea of asking Cokaliong Shipping Lines to sponsor a team to take part in tournaments in Cebu City. The idea died after the Surigao FA got various invititations from neighboring FA’s to take part in their tournaments.
Although we are waiting for the right time to make the move on Cokaliong, here you are with the very good idea of having Chester be the president of the PFF.
Well, congratulations because with the kind of leadership football is having now, your idea will surely be a sellout and I think it is possible for Cokaliong to have a nomination in the PFF congress. Why don’t we start the plan as early as now?
We from Surigao will surely campaign for him in Mindanao. Dako gyud kaayo ang chance nga mo asenso sad ang PILIPINAS ining duwa a uy.”
(mikelimpag@gmail.com)