WHEN will USC realize its potential?
It was still 10 minutes or so into the second half and University of San Carlos head coach Allan Medalla (Not Medalle as is usually reported, right, coach?) was busy checking his watch. USC was still ahead, 1-0, at that moment but every now and then, he’d check his watch.
At one point, he glanced at his bench and asked, “Pila bilin?”
Over at the sideline, Miguel Kwan was warming up, ready to suit up in the game. Just one of the tactics the wily coach had in mind. I remember asking him a few weeks back about a potential rematch with USPF and he calmly said, ”I know how to handle USPF.”
When Kwan got in, his first involvement was a foul; in his second, he only needed two touches to seal the win, the first one to collect a nifty through-pass that went past the defense, and the second, the loveliest of chips for the go-ahead goal.
That was the third title for USC in four years and, save for USJ-R in the early years of the Cesafi, no one has dominated the collegiate scene as USC has. Their dominance started when Mario Ceniza took charge--and he won in his first and only year with USC--and Coaches Allan and Totot Colina have extended their dominance.
It’s just too bad, though, that USC’s success in the collegiate scene again reminds me of its wasted potential, one that had even a Don Bosco Technological Center coach seeing green with envy. USC, as coach Allan and Totot have proven, have a nice program in college and has an above-average high school and elementary program.
What it does not have is a unified program for the seven-year-olds up to the 21-year-olds, or from Grade 1 to the college senior. Just imagine what a gold mine USC would be for football if it had a continuous program designed to teach seven-year-olds the basics, hone them at 10, introduce them to 11-a-side at 11, with the ultimate goal of making them the best collegiate players for USC.
“Malupigan ang Don Bosco. Naa pa gud sila’y mga babaye,” said my friend from DBTC.
Why can’t it be done? There was a turf war when USC tried to implement it and again, for me, that’s being near-sighted and childish. No coach needs to lose his job; USC will need all the coaches it can tap for this one.
All it needs is for the coaches, the parents and the administration to share one vision. Just imagine, if USC had started it four years ago, the school would have started to feel the effects of the program in the elementary division of the City Olympics.