BAGUIO City’s junior futsal team is locking its eyes for a gold finish as they open bid in the 2015 Batang Pinoy National Finals in Cebu City this Saturday.
The Summer Capital’s ten-woman line-up vie to improve 2014’s silver medal stint in this year’s edition of the sport race backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and partnered with the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Education.
Futsal coach Aries Bocalan said Baguio’s entries are all set and prepared to take the best teams from all corners of the country.
According to Bocalan, the three months of preparations gave the team enough time to master their game plays as they bid to claim the overall title this year.
“Good practice, it has been our regular routine in the previous months. I guess apart from making this team more prepared physically we also managed to improve their mental state as we hope to set aside the intimidation and pressure going into the nationals,” Bocalan told Sun.Star Baguio.
Bocalan added the team will seek to preserve their gold medal outing in the Batang Pinoy Luzon Leg held earlier in August.
“We cannot really predict how good our opponents will be but as long as we keep our cool along the competition we would like to take another step in bringing home the top plum, this time in the nationals,” he added.
During the 2014 BP Nationals held in Bacolod City, Baguio futbelles finished with a silver medal after falling 1-2 against Olongapo City.
Included in this year’s futbelle line-up are Kayla Jamie Dalisay, Yohan Rez Buenaventura, Gabriela Altomonte, Jan Ahliya Malit, Melorie Mogamog, Annedrew Bautista, Rowan Bungay, Mikaela Fidel, Aveya Buenaventura, and Morriel Saguitan.
According to Bocalan this will be the last stop for the team before a major revamp as most of the team will graduate next year.
“Hopefully we can deliver the expectations especially most of the members will already be graduating by next year.” Bocalan said.
Known as the Philippine Youth Games-Batang Pinoy, serves as the national sports competition program for children 15 years old and below and is envisioned to address the need for a grassroots sports program centered on values formation inherent in the practice of sports and fair play.
It also widens PSC’s national pool selection for potential athletes which will be used for future national and international sports competitions, primarily the quadrennial Youth Olympic Games.