Summer sports

A major sporting event that would feature so many sports disciplines will be held once again this May  the Cebufest.

While this is not only about sports, what is most noticeable about Cebufest is that many sports competitions and demonstrations that would be held during the week-long activity set at the South Road Properties (SRP).

What makes this even better is that the many events don’t entail the closure of the SRP to traffic, which means many would get a chance to witness the action and take part in the competitions.

My fellow Cebu City Sports Commissioner Brian Lim is the man behind the Cebufest and he is adding several activities to this year’s edition including sporting competitions that we never had before.

I won’t jump the gun on Brian and tell you the details of the plans, but the Cebufest is definitely one event that we should not miss this May.

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Although sports is a regular topic of conversation in our home, the past few days it has been about sports that would be interesting to do this summer.

With two children, a son in his early teens and an eight-year-old daughter, I hope to get them playing during the school break, which starts late next week for their school.

One thing that is really nice these days is that parents have so many places to go to if we want our kids to play or learn a new sport.

When I was a kid, there was only the YMCA, which offered swimming, karate, tennis, and a few other sports and the martial arts clubs in different parts of the city offering summer karate classes.

Now, even the schools, including the small ones, have their summer sports programs, which have proven to be very helpful in getting the children busy for the next three months until the classes resume this June.

My kids haven’t really said anything yet about what they intend to take up and I don’t also want to force them to take something up that they don’t like to do. I know of many parents who impose upon their children the sport that they used to play, but that style doesn’t work now.

We should make sure that we let our kids enjoy sports so that it would not be such trouble having to wake them up during the mornings to bring them to their clinics or lessons.

If possible, it would be best to look for sports activities that the kids can continue to do when classes resume. It would also be good to find a sport that the school has a varsity program or even just a team for so that our children will get to measure their development against schoolmates and those from other schools.

Let us also bear in mind that with the sky-rocketing prices of fuel and other commodities, getting involved in sports during the school break would mean an added burden to our finances.

Don’t despair though as there are also many free programs that you can get your kids into. Read the papers regularly for information about these programs or ask around your community.

Getting our kids into sports is a worthwhile investment. Only very few of them may become world-class athletes, but the lessons that they learn would be priceless.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings to my cousin Ethel Lebumfacil-Alvarez, who turns a year older today. The same goes to Ivy Cortes and Gina Arjona.

Advance greetings to tomorrow’s celebrants Tina Visaya, Gary Carabio, Mardi Madarang, Abon Cimafranca, Ed Franco, Mayel Martinez, and another cousin Ria Lebumfacil.

Welcome home also to the Hawaii-5A. Yup, the five Addingtons from Hawaii, my sister Naika, her husband Mike, and their kids MJ, Nyle, and Naia.

More power to all of you!