Are foreign coaches worth it?

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is paying 20 foreign coaches a total monthly salary of $34,300 or the equivalent of about P1.77 million plus allowances of close to P200,000. The bill comes to a yearly tab of about P23.5 million.

The highest-paid foreign coaches are Madoka Amano of bowling, Zhang Dehu of diving, Rolandas Kazlauskas of rowing, Serhiy Rodionov of archery, and Ryuzo Ishikawa of swimming – each pocketing $2,500 a month in addition to an allowance of P5,000 for utilities and another P5,000 for transportation.

In contrast, a Class A athlete in the national team is given a P7,500 monthly stipend plus a P3,000 meal allowance if not billeted in a PSC dormitory. A Class B athlete receives P5,500 a month and a Class C athlete, P3,500. A training pool athlete is given a P3,500 pay a month and a developmental pool athlete, P3,000 – both without a meal allowance.

A PSC source said that 854 athletes were listed in the payroll as of last month and the total payout amounted to some P6 million.

A local coach earns P10,500 a month plus a P3,000 meal allowance. An assistant coach earns P8,500 a month plus a P3,000 meal allowance. Equipment handlers – including masseurs, trainers, and armorers – are paid from P3,000 to P5,000 a month without a meal allowance.

Coaches, assistant coaches, and equipment personnel bankroll a total of about P2 million a month. As of last Aug. 31, the PSC listed 82 coaches, 78 assistant coaches, and eight equipment personnel in its payroll. The difference in numbers is glaring. There are 20 foreign coaches who are paid about P2 million a month while there are 158 Filipinos – coaches, assistant coaches, and equipment personnel – sharing roughly the same amount a month.

Foreign coaches are signed up to one-year contracts with Kazlauskas (nine months) and Ishikawa (1 1/2 years) the only exceptions. Kazlauskas’ contract expired last Sept. 30 and the PSC is awaiting the recommendation from rowing officials whether or not it will be renewed.

Wushu has four foreign coaches, the most of any National Sports Association (NSA). The sport delivered four golds, two silvers, and four bronzes at the last Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur. It has produced 53 medals, including 24 gold, in the last four stagings of the SEA Games where wushu was an event. However, wushu isn’t an Olympic sport.

There are three foreign coaches for fencing – Shen Chan Jie, Anton Antokhine, and Teng Wei. But the PSC pays for only Shen Chan and Antokhine. Fencing hauled in a gold, four silvers, and a bronze in Kuala Lumpur. Since the 1987 SEA Games, fencing has delivered a total of 66 medals, including 16 golds.

Bowling maintains two foreign coaches, Purvis Granger and Amano, even as the country’s No. 1 kegler Rafael Nepomuceno prefers to be coached by his father Angel.

Other sports with foreign coaches are golf, wrestling, archery, shooting, pencak silat, football, and gymnastics.

Curiously, the list of foreign coaches includes a pair of Russian psychologists Albert Rodionov and Guennadi Gorbounov who are each paid a salary of $1,500 a month plus allowances. Their contracts expire on Oct. 23.

No foreign coach is listed under athletics which was the country’s gold topnotcher in Kuala Lumpur.

In a tally of how many medals each NSA has delivered in the SEA Games since 1977, shooting emerged No. 1 with 246. Second was athletics at 216. Only four other sports brought in at least 100 – swimming at 180, weightlifting at 161, bowling at 120 and boxing at 105.

Athletics stood out as the top gold producer with 54. Swimming was second at 51. Bowling bagged 47 golds and shooting, 41.

The sports that failed to deliver a single medal for the Philippines in Kuala Lumpur were badminton, equestrian, football, sepak takraw, and table tennis. Of the five sports, only football has a PSC-funded foreign coach, Masataka Imai who earns $2,000 a month plus allowances. Imai replaced Spaniard Juan Cutillas, a long-time Manila resident now living in Australia, as football’s foreign coach.

Eight foreign coaches’ contracts expire this year.

Perhaps, the PSC should take a long, hard look at the performance of foreign coaches when their contracts lapse. Whatever savings can be derived from not renewing the contracts of certain foreign coaches could go to a pool of funds for national athletes.

The PSC is spending close to P2 million for foreign coaches a month – are they worth it?