Enjoying sports with the family

The four-day weekend is giving the 2010 Corn Tee of Club Filipino Incorporada de Cebu a major boost.

The holidays tomorrow and Friday will make the trip to Danao City less stressful for the players. There won’t be office work to deal with when you get back to Cebu City and the traffic is expected to be lighter.

The tournament is Club Filipino’s annual member-guest tournament. I was told yesterday that there could be a few more slots available for last minute entries. A team must have one member of the host club and three guests.

Aside from the challenge offered by the CFIC course in barangay Pulangyuta, Danao City, the participants are also looking forward to the exciting prizes and the entertainment that Club Filipino is known to offer during the awards night.

I still am waiting for word if the team that we’re trying to organize can make it on time for the tournament, but definitely I’ll be at the award rites to throw my support to some of my closest friends from the golf community, who are running the event like my ex-boss and compadre Jiji Gullas, Boboy Durano and Evans Tumaliwan.

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Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, said the other day, that he hopes that the Aquino administration would see the importance of sports as a tool for nation building.

We were with the mayor as well as Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young at city hall last Monday to discuss the plans and programs for sports development in Cebu City.

While there are still a lot of things that ought to be in place so we can realize our dreams for sports.

Some of us dream of winning in the international stage and there are those who just wish to see the Cebuanos enjoy sports and have a healthy lifestyle.

While some schools of thought would say that the two would always clash, we hope to achieve that happy balance here in Cebu.

I know of many people who have gained interest in sports due to the involvement of their children. Eventually the parents also took up certain sporting activities to stay fit and to spend quality time with the other members of the family.

Now that I have officially retired from competitive sports, my best times engaging in sports activities are those that involve the other members of the family.

It could be playing golf or biking or being on the field to watch one of our children play.

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MILESTONES: Belated birthday greetings go to Christiane D. Ong, Anabelle Gilla-Maglasang, Hazel Oliamot-Jimenea, Ian Rodis, and The Freeman’s Roel Labrador, who all turned a year older last Monday.

Belated greetings also go to Lily Rosebud Uy-Sawyer and my uncle Vic Cotejo, who celebrated yesterday.

My nephew Martin ‘Young Gun’ Belarmino also celebrated yesterday. Martin, who turned 13 years old, is a freshman at the Cebu Bradford School. He is preparing to take part in next month’s Austral-Asia shootfest in Malaysia. My wish for my nephew is that the impending gun ban would not affect his and the rest of the team’s preparations.

Today’s greetings go to my mistah Erwin Caesar Rivera, Benedict Climaco, Mary Adrienne Valero-Lood, Rachel Bolongaita, and The Freeman’s region editor Rolex Elmido.

More power to all of you! – THE FREEMAN