When stars collide

Attending awards nights or awarding ceremonies has become a routine practice for sportswriters. They’ve attended so many awarding ceremonies in their lives whether this happens on a basketball court, on top a boxing ring or at the athletics oval. They’ll also be secretive to admit that some of these have gotten to be boring and dragging.

But what happens when stars collide? What happens when you gather the best athletes of Cebu Sports under one roof to recognize their amazing achievements? March 11 was something special for the Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC) at the 28th SAC-San Miguel Beer (SMB) Cebu Sports Awards where the SAC gave recognition to the best of the best of 2009 coming from the different sporting events which has made Cebu Sports so rich.

But unlike previous SAC-SMB Awards nights, this was something else. It was something different. Never before have we gained so much from attending a simple dinner banquet for athletes to think that we do this every year. Under one roof, we saw what Cebu Sports is all about: grassroots development, excellence in sports, importance of parents’ support, the value of generous sportsmen with huge hearts, and the determined will of an athlete to win his battle for life.

When the Dancesport Team Cebu City presented two dances: start-up young kids and a veteran pair, we saw the link between youth development and their top senior dancers. Starting them young is the way to go if we are to be competitive, and Dancesport Team Cebu City’s grassroots program is a model to admire. If this can be duplicated by all the other sports, Cebu would be at the top of it all. Moreover, around half of the awardees were in their teens or early 20’s, a great sign that our youth programs must be on the right track.

In running, we recognized not only the top runners in Mendel Lopez and Mary Grace de los Santos, but also a group of “ordinary” runners (not elite athletes) in the Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) and Dr. Yong Larrazabal who have helped turn running into one of the most popular sports these days, especially for those so-called “frustrated” athletes who want to stay in shape. This is where we see how ordinary athletes can make a difference in building the sport that they love. 

When Team DEFTAC did a demonstration of Brazilian jujitsu, we saw how Cebu won’t be left behind in mixed martial arts, the fastest growing contact sport in the world (growing faster than boxing). The big challenge now is to show that like its cousin boxing, we too, have world quality MMA fighters who can match up with those who we see on TV.

Parents play a big role in the development of their kids as young athletes, and there they were proudly taking pictures, clapping and cheering for everyone. But the most impressive part was how they were always in the background and not stealing the spotlight away from their children, just the way it should be.

Rubilen Amit, our athlete of the year, is determination personified after having gone through a lot before winning the biggest titles both here and abroad. She could’ve been somewhere else working in the private sector working as a call center agent or an accountant, but fate took a different course and today, she’s up there with the best of women billiards players.

Antonio L. Aldeguer a.k.a ALA, was the most “legitimate” guest of honor that we’ve ever had. His speech didn’t talk about politics; no finger-pointing; no blaming of sports people and certainly no holding back. His speech came straight from the heart and although he claims he was in no position to inspire the awardees as a guest of honor is supposed to do, he did more than that. He inspired all of us in the room very much in the same way that he was inspired by what he saw in the champions among the athletes.

And then you have Z Gorres. Who doesn’t know him and his latest tragedy-turned- achievement? He proved that one didn’t have to be an official champion to be a real champion. He may have failed to win a world championship, but by overcoming his close encounter with death and defeat it by KO, he was more than a champion in everyone’s eyes; a champion for life.

Amazing and impressive. That’s what happened when the stars aligned.

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Time-out: With the Cansaga Bay bridge now open, the taffic management teams of Mandaue, Consolacion and Liloan must now enforce traffic rules. Still a common sight are the extended living and dining rooms in Paknaan taking up half a lane, kids running around and dangerous tricycle drivers. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].   (FREEMAN NEWS)