My New Year’s wishes

May peace break into your house and thieves come to steal all your debts. May the pockets of your jeans be magnets for P1,000 bills. May love stick to your face like blackheads and laughter raid your lips. May your clothes smell of success like sauteed garlic. May happiness slap you across the face and may you have tears of joy. May the problems you had forget your home address. And lastly, may 2008 be the best year of your life!

To all my ’78 Don Bosco batchmates, may you still be as handsome as your mother thinks, may you be as rich as your children believes and may you have as many women as your wife suspects... Happy New Year everyone!

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As designated head of Liloan’s athletic concerns, I would like to congratulate the women’s volleyball team for bagging the top plum of the third Gov. Gwen Garcia Unity Volleyball Cup held two Saturdays ago at the CICC. Also last Monday, December 24, the men’s basketball team took the championship of the 2nd Cong. Red Durano Inter-Town Basketball Tournament at the Danao City Civic Center.

Twin kills for this season of chills for Liloan. The basketball team went through the eliminations giving up only a single game to the team from Carmen. In the semis, it lost to Sogod but again faced the same team for the title and eventually prevailing. The volleyball team had exciting games during the cluster eliminations and won over three other teams. The same cannot be said in the qualifying round as the competition was not up to par. Watching water turn to ice is more thrilling. In all fairness, the women spikers steam-rolled through the whole tournament without giving up a set, dominating the field.

I will give credit to where credit is due. To the coaches, volleyball’s Clifford Cape and Jason Gabanes, and basketball’s Edsel Vallena, Rey Taneo and Wilson Arcelo, those were jobs very well done. To Boss Camilo and all those nameless individuals who have contributed their time and effort in going to the venues to cheer and support the teams, my gratitude. To the players of both teams, we now have titles to defend and there is no greater motivation than to make a better and stronger performance next time around to keep those titles in our keeping for a long time.

It has been practiced in tournaments of this magnitude that aside from the titles awarded, cash prizes are also given to winning teams. With big amounts, controversies are just around the corner and as the saying goes, money is the root of all evil. I hear reports from several disappointed and visibly hurt athletes that some had more than their fair share of the prize money at the arrogant insistence of someone.

One of these teams has a pompously overbearing individual who likes to call the shots and even has the twisted sense of preaching about fairness. This guy has on several instances bad-mouthed local officials and individuals who supported that team, had the nerve of suggesting to the town’s chief executive to change the acting head of the sports and cultural commission. Ikaw mo puli? I say there is a thin line between ego and ungratefulness and that when you cross that line, come hell or high water, nobody goes down but you. As long as teams or any group for that matter depend on entities for support, dammit, sponsors always have the last say. If you don’t like it, shut up and weep! Happy New Year!