HAVING seen the best of the Philippines in the Southeast Asian Games beach volleyball competition, I thought the only way we could ever compete internationally in this sport was to scour the globe for players with Filipino lineage.
That’s what happened in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, when the token home teams lost badly. The other PHL teams in the competition were manned by Fil-Ams and at least they had a chance, not the locals.
At one point, I was hoping the other women’s team would lose because that was the only way they could help the Philippines in the SEA Games as the locals were to face the Philippines second team of Fil-Ams Heide Ilustre and Diane Pascua.
Anyway, that stint got me thinking, that we can never compete internationally with local players.
And over the years, the absence of a beach volleyball program sort of proved me right.
But sometimes, a dash of madness here, a stroke of luck there, plus loads and loads of
hardwork can disprove you.
And I present Jade Becaldo, Louijie Tipgos, Edward Ybañez and Edmar Bonono as Exhibit A, with of course, Edward Hayco and Eric LeCain as “supporting proof.”
The four have ruled the beach volleyball collegiate circuit for years and of course, haven’t been called up for the national team. Until now.
And not only are the four competing in the Asian Beach Games—as opposed to going there for the sake of participation—they are actually winning matches.
Surprised? So am I.
In fact, as I write this, Becaldo and Tipgos are in the round-of-16 of the Asiad meet, and were set to meet host team Nuttanon Inkiew and Sitticai Sangkhachot. That was after an exciting round-of-32 match against Chinese Taipe that had the Cebuanos
winning in three close sets, 19-21, 21-19, 15-13.
Ybañez and Bonono, sadly, lost to Japan’s Yuya Ageba and Yoshium Hasegawa, 21-19, 14-21, 15-11.
Aside from showing what the Philippines can achieve in international beach volleyball, the four are proof of what sports stakeholders in Cebu—or those outside of Manila—have been fighting for, for years.
Let us train our players our way in our place and we can compete internationally.
Isn’t that why our promising boxers shy away from the national team? Unwilling to have
themselves uprooted to Manila, they’d rather forego an international stint.
It’s something, too, that athletes in other sports are trying to fight for—why can’t we train here?
And look at what our beach volleyball teams are doing—they trained here and are supported locally—and in the Asian Beach Games, they’ve gone where no national teams has gone before, the knockout round.
Like I said, a dash of madness is needed, plus luck.
The four players and their backers were crazy enough to think that this can be achieved and went on to do it their way. For months, now, they’ve trained at the Fort San Pedro court, held regular monthly tournaments.
It can be done.
And of course, they had to fight, too, for their spot in the national team because as anyone remotely involved in sports knows, sometimes who you know, not what you can do, determines whether you can travel to international tournaments like the Asian Beach Games.
GET THAT APP. The 3rd Sun.Star Football Cup kicks off today at the Cebu City Sports Center and if you want to get a copy of your schedule, you may download the app—made by Innopubb—in Google Play.
No need to pester your coach for a printed of your match schedule as you can have one on your phone.
Also this year, we are partnering with Sunsport, which will be providing the official balls for the competition.
See you at CCSC!
(www.mikelimpag@gmail.com)