ONE of the most difficult decisions a coach has to make once he wins in the team event of the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association is to pick whom of his players to drop for the Palarong Pambansa.
It’s a difficult decision because you are essentially dropping the players who played a key role in the team’s success, from the lowest Unit Meet up to the Central Visayas.
That was before. Now, Central Visayas coaches may not have to drop anyone should they choose to.
One of the issues coaches face in the Palaro is that requirement from DepEd that champion teams need to pick a certain number of players from the runner-up and third-place teams.
Now, DepEd has finally learned to trust the coaches and will leave it up to them whether they pick players up or they go solid.
“One of the changes this year is that the winning coach can decide if he will pick up other players or go exactly with the same team. This is good for the chemistry of the team,” Cebu City sports coordinator Francis Ramirez said.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Ramirez had a hand in this rule as a football coach, he can relate to the experience of other coaches.
“Why would I pick up the star players of the losing finalist when my bench players can fit the team better,” one Palaro bound coach told me after a solidarity meeting years ago.
It was at that meeting that they were told they were required to reinforce their teams. I heard that the basketball coach was so incensed at the idea that he decided to quit the team and didn’t join the Palaro. The Palaro-bound team was totally different from the one he handled that earned the spot to the Palaro.
“They should just trust the coaches, besides, we know what we are doing,” one coach complained, and adding that the people responsible for the “must-pick-reinforcement” rule are desk-bound officials who know nothing about coaching.
Well, DepEd has listened. The power to decide on a team’s composition has been handed to the coach and it may be a very simple move, but for a traditional set-up like DepEd, it’s a radical move.
Division officials who have no Palaro-bound athletes have no reason to join the delegation, which I suspect, is the reason behind the rule so that officials of losing finalists can tag along.
Perhaps, aside from improving team chemistry, DepEd Region 7’s new rule might even reduce the number of tag-along officials in the Palaro.