The biggest supporters

CEBU - This is the season when your calendar doesn’t seem to have enough dates or open hours to go to all invitations. Well, I am just being apologetic as I have missed most of the invitations that have been sent to me for the lighting of their Christmas tree to the Christmas parties.

So you won’t feel so bad, I even missed our company party as I was at my alma mater for a meeting to help find ways to keep UP High School in Cebu open for the future generations.

Like my fellow alumni, we’re doing this for the love of the school that molded us to what we are now even if our children would not be allowed to study there due to the strict income requirements.

One thing that UP High School instilled in me is the love for sports that I share with many others from the same school.

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A very happy sporting parent sent me email the other night to share the victory of her son’s team in the Under-17 category of the football event of the Philippine Olympic Festival.

Mimi Alazas, wife of my fellow UP High alumnus and one of my favorite golfers, Alvin, was ecstatic in her email.

She was even with their son Mikel in Cagayan de Oro City during the tournament.

I know of many others parents who were there including my friend from way back our days as small kids in the Atlas Mines in Toledo City, Minchu Rebaya-Decena, who also went to CDO to be with her son, who played in the U-15 team of Cebu City.

While ideally, government has to give the biggest support for sports development, in our situation, the support of parents like them is actually the biggest reason why our teams are winning.

The parents provide not only the equipment, but also sustenance and financial and moral support that help our athletes attain their goals. Well, I’d also be honest to achieve often it is also the goals of the parents that the kids attain.

It is not that today’s parents, like me, are your stage dads and moms, or are frustrated athletes hoping to make up for what we missed as kids, but because we have realized the need to start them young in sports.

During our time we were often left on our own to learn sports, usually from classmates or our PE teachers, but times have changed. Now, parents hire coaches to train the kids in doing it the proper way.

This also gives us more reason to be proud of what they achieve as we have taken an active role in their participation in sports.

For me, the best part about being a sporting parent, is not only seeing your child win, but also getting to spend quality time with them and bonding with other families that are doing the same.

This is a very good start for the change that we hope to see in the future generations. We may not be perfect sporting parents, but we care enough to make sure that our kids learn the right things from the right people and that includes ourselves, who should serve as good examples.

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MILESTONES: Sometimes its hard to get along with siblings, but brothers are brothers and no matter what blood is indeed thicker than water or even alcoholic beverages hehehe. I’d like to give warm birthday greetings to my brother Nino Paolo, who was nicknamed Jingle as a baby since he was born only a few days before Christmas at the staff house we used to call home in Sangi, Toledo City 34 years ago.

Belated birthday greetings go to my friends Sarah Salera and Christy Manguerra, who both turned a year older yesterday.

More power to all of you! (THE FREEMAN)