A WEEK ago, the Cordilleras trooped to Batangas to compete in the National Open Softball Championship. Baguio and Benguet were there. As the dust of competition cleared, Adamson University had bagged both Open and Club Championship, a continuing testimony of coach Ana Santiago’s good fortune of cornering the country’s best softball talents from secondary school and honing them into national champions with the continuing support of the university (of course).
Albeit I am now away from the game, this year’s ASAPHIL tournament was a bitter sweet reminder of our first National Open Tournament. The venue then was also Batangas. Young softbelles from the Cordilleras competed under a sponsorship of real estate company who footed the expenses in transportation and uniforms. Our daily food was ours to bear.
With a sack of sayote, cans of corned beef in a backpack, a sack of rice and our own personal monies, the first Cordilleran 11 softbelles went to Batangas. Some are apt to call this foray in unknown waters, exposure. More than exposure, this was a baptism of fire for Cordillera softball – who resisted progress. This was an opportunity to be enlightened on how the best teams in the country play the game of competitive softball. Not the competitive game of softball. A fine line divided and a distinction between the two exists.
Beholding that both Baguio and Benguet had sent separate delegations to compete in the 2016 National Open Softball Championship was in itself a joy for me. Softball is alive and more young ladies and their coaches see how the game should be played. It mattered not whether any of the two different squads won only a couple of games or less. After many years, now there is the simple satisfaction that game has found some kind of financial support with the city and provincial administrations.
With that, this prayer goes - that Cordillera softball could seriously return to its benefactors some honor and some glory by bringing at least a distinction. I mean not just with their votes of gratitude. May their journey be more meaningful.
The prayer aforesaid, I believe is not one steeped in impossibility. Twelve young lasses and one coach alone accomplished the same feat many years ago. If any should ask now what the distinction was? We returned with a silver medal, a feather in our cap – one which we earned during the finals of the national Philippine Olympic Festival in Cagayan de Oro.
We did not expect to bring in the haul but we managed to overcome challenges and adversities along the way. For us, this was the first of many distinctions to come but not yet in the National Open Softball Championships.
In retrospect, the achievement in the Philippine Olympic Festival itself surprised the Cordilleran softbelles. They never had in their entire softball career as secondary softbelles of the Cordilleras reached this far – to compete for a championship title.
They had never tasted the honor and glory of an honorable distinction. After the feat in Cagayan de Oro, then city administrator Peter Fianza and even Yul Benosa, the athletic director of the University of the Cordilleras was surprisingly pleased. Softball gave 12 medals (not 11) to the Baguio delegation’s medal count.
Who were these?
Bridgette Caslangen of Mountain Province and April Cabacungan of Pozo Rubio were pitchers; Michelle Nucaza of Baguio, catcher; Jonalyn Losnong of Irisan, 1st base; Lasley Tamiking of Baguio, 2nd base; Marz Rachel Ozo of Irisan, short stop; Melody Bandiwan of Baguio, 3rd base; Christine Valenciano of Benguet, left field, Elvira Kelly of Dontogan, right field; Kareen Mendoza of Baguio, designated hitter; team captain Maricel Urbano, center field; Juvy Manzano, relief pitcher; and Rachel Coteng, reserve outfielder.
More than that for us in the small and beautiful setting of Balingasag, the Cordilleras became crowd favorites against National Capital Region, an attention they never had experienced even in their own turf. We surprised the field. The highland girls became exceptional ambassadors on the softball diamond with their warmth, grit and resolve. Eleven softbelles and one coach will always remember the love and the appreciation of Balingasag community. Because of them, softball in the Cordilleras has changed for the better.