THE entry-level athletes and grassroots players in Cebu City can now follow a ladder program with the combination of the 2018 Summer Grassroots Program and the 2018 School For Sports.
The Summer Grassroots Program, now on its eighth year, will be on April 9 to May 5 and will offer 20 events in 20 different training sites.
After the summer grassroots program, the participants can choose to continue with their athletic goal through the School for Sports at the start of the 2018-2019 school year.
“These two events are intertwined. We started the School for Sports last school year with two pilots schools, we’re going to tap eight more schools next school year,” said Cebu City Councilor Joy Augustus Young in a press conference yesterday.
Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) chairman Edward Hayco said the combination of these two sports program will help promote the interest of the children in sports.
The Summer Grassroots Program for aged 6 to 18 years old will offer free coaching in archery, air rifle, arnis, badminton, beach volleyball, boxing, chess, muay thai, dancesports, futsal, karatedo, lawn tennis, pencak silat, scrabble, sepak takraw, softball/baseball, table tennis, taekwondo, touch rugby, track and field, volleyball, weightlifting, wushu and gymnastics.
“We will have 600 volunteer coaches this year. We hope to get more kids involve in sports. This is for entry level athletes,” said Hayco.
The participants will have 20 sessions of coaching before the culminating activity on May 5.
“We aim to develop the performance of the public school athletes. After the summer program, there will be the School For Sports,” said Young. “The school for sports started last year with pilot schools in City Central School and Abellana National School.”
For the next school year they will be adding Zapatera Elementary School, Tejero Elementary School, Regino Mercado Elementary School, Guadalupe Elementary School, Tisa Elementary School, Punta Princesa Elementary School, Labangon Elementary School and schools in the mountain barangays.
The School For Sports will put the athletes in one section so they can focus on sports.
“We will strengthen our extra curricular activities, it’s not just all academic. Sports is one of our extra curricular activities,” said Young, who’s chairs the committee on education.
“For the School For Sports we will have the elementary students first and we will see if we can include the high school students along the way,” said Young.