CCSC chairman for 12 YEARS: Ed Hayco leaves a lasting legacy

CEBU, Philippines —  Edward Hayco is proud and happy to leave the Cebu City Sports Commission knowing that he has established a lasting legacy after serving as CCSC chairman for 12 good years.

Hayco spent his last day as the city’s sports czar by gracing the blessing and turnover ceremony of the

Gymnastics Academy of Cebu at the Labangon Elementary School yesterday.

Also present during the event were Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama, Philippine Sports Commissioner Ramon Fernandez, and John Pages, the newly-appointed CCSC chairman who formally took his oath of office before mayor Rama on the same occasion.

“This gymnastics academy of Cebu will be my last legacy project,” said Hayco. “Our vision for the academy is to send a public school gymnasts to the 2028 Olympics.”

“I am very certain John Pages will take good care of the academy. John is someone I fully trust, a grassroots believer, and a dear friend,” he added.

As he stepped away from the post he held for over a decade, Hayco enumerated all the valuable contributions of CCSC to Cebu sports.

“First and foremost is creating a culture of volunteerism and the spirit of sharing,” said Hayco. “We were able to create this culture in our coaches and athletes. That athletes share their skills and techniques to younger athletes instead of just focusing on their own training just to win.”

Hayco also takes pride that they were able to provide a transformational experience to those public school youths, most of whom will never have that opportunity to learn from good coaches.

Under his baton, Hayco hopes that the CCSC will be remembered for its historic four Guinness world records in dancesport, chess, archery and arnis, the city’s winning the overall championship in the Philippine National Games (PNG), and its being a finalist in the “Galing Pook Awards”  wherein the city’s grassroots program was recognized Top 12 out of 300 local government projects across the country.

“Guinness records were a strategic move to create enough excitement to bring people together. But the purpose was a catalyst to create a grassroots program,” Hayco said.

“We’re proud to say that the Cebu City sports program was used as the bench mark, best practice grassroots program during the Phil Sports Summit initiative in 2013 at the Rizal Stadium. Since then, program has been adopted by several cities as far as Dagupan in the North and General Santos in the South,” he continued.

Recalling the days when he assumed as CCSC chair back in 2010, Hayco said they really had no grand plans, no plans for a super stadium or a grand international tournament.

“Ever since, our centerpiece program was always a humble and simple grassroots sports program,” shared Hayco. “We had a simple formula. Cebu City government plus DepEd plus dedicated coaches plus volunteer athletes. Fuse all the ingredients together in a mixture of positive culture equals a genuine grassroots program.”

“That was our thrust, simple and effective. Using sports as a transformational tool to nurture both coaches and athletes. Everything was done with a strategic and meaningful purpose.”

“There’s still a lot of stories that we’d like to share. Even more touching but maybe these are the highlights of our adventure,” Hayco ended.