A voice of our youth

Dancing in the border of flamboyance and self-expression, the National Cheerleading Championship finished its National Capital Region (NCR) championships yesterday at the Mall of Asia music hall. High school qualifiers were held Saturday, and college battles were slated for Sunday. As of this writing, the final roster of winners who earned slots to the National Championships at the end of the month had not yet been settled, but the new routines were dramatic and breathtaking. As always, the coaches, choreographers and cheerleaders themselves found a way to outdo even their own past spectacular performances.

I often have mixed emotions seeing young people at this age giving their all for something, particularly in the sporting arena. Youth, like its constant companions triumph and disappointment, are so sharply defining, yet also fleeting. I have often wondered what young people think about, if they even consider what the future holds for them. Having two adult sons seeking their place in the world after a long flirtation with basketball, I still have recurring feelings ranging from sadness to concern to dread for what they might face. There are times we parents struggle with what may come with the next wave of challenge, and if we can somehow shield our children from whatever may come and change their perception of the world. Deep inside, I imagine every parent wants his or her offspring to be insulated from the world, to stay innocent and unscarred. But we also know it will never happen, and all we can do is cushion the blows life deals them.

This writer had a very interesting, enlightening and hope-filled conversation with one of the country’s outstanding cheerleaders. Amanda Alejandrino is a sophomore at National University, and part of one of the best cheer teams in the country, bar none. The diminutive, dynamic, dynamite performer is an independent, insightful and surprisingly mature young woman who has given life and the future a great deal of thought. It gives those in the elder generation reassurance that things will turn out okay for our children.

“I have always recognized the sports industry as one of the leading ways a country can come together and even economically improve. Athletics has been a big part of my life and I’ve seen how it can change people’s values, and their standards of living,” says Alejandrino, who was in Sunday’s NCC NCR finale and part of the defending champion NU Pep Squad. “I was 12 years old when I first started competing for the country as a gymnast. I spent seven years on the national team learning about my craft and eventually other disciplines. I remember reflecting on how my involvement in sports impacted my life. I was blessed with travels to other countries, knowledge about how to manage the money we were paid with at a young age, a loving team and good friends, and eventually a scholarship here at NU for my tertiary education. What struck me at that time too, was the realization that, sadly, not a lot of children my age had the privilege of being exposed to sports, therefore, couldn’t experience what I was so blessed to have had.”

At first glance, Amanda, like all cheerleaders, looks much younger than her age. Small and slight of build, but full of inner steel. Nothing seems to stop her from getting where she needs to go. At a very young age, she was taught by her mother to go out and get what she wants in life. As a teen-age athlete who has already earned certain privileges, she is fully capable of supporting herself already through maintaining insurance accounts and other small business ideas. That strength of character she learned at home and strengthened in training.

“The discipline of sports moulds a person and teaches them to become disciplined, respectful to authorities, like trainers and managers,” says Alejandrino, whose siblings are mostly in music and the arts. “The way of our lives as athletes teaches you to value time – to know when work has to be done, when you have to recover, and how to put play last. Personally, it’s also taught me how to value the time I had with my family, because as an athlete, you will not always be home. At a young age, you are taught how to work and put your hours in at the gym. Not only does it benefit you in this way but economically, the sports industry could be a big factor to changing us financially.”

Unlike many youth who are oblivious to what goes on around them, Alejandrino seeks to change her perceptions of the world around her, and someday change her world itself.

“I’m a commuter, I take the train, jeep, bus, you name it – I have probably already been on it. I am also a fond observer of bodies, how people are built, how they stand and move. It may be because of all my years in gymnastics. One thing I’ve noticed was that on almost every street, Filipino kids are tumbling, dancing, or playing basketball. This country is alive!” she exclaims. “And so are our bodies. We were built with lithe ease in the air, very compact and very strong. Not only are we good in the air and quick on land, but we’re island dwellers; we’re used to water too. I never understood why most Filipinos would rather spend time in the malls being indoors and lazy rather than playing outside and being productive. As I was growing up, I naively thought that maybe Filipinos didn’t play too many sports (outside) because they didn’t want to get any darker than they already were (at least that’s what my yaya told me). But I came to know that it was also because sports and job opportunities in the industry are not as encouraged as they should be.”

As an older adult, I heaved a sigh of relief. If our young people today think like Amanda Alejandrino, then our country’s future will be in good hands.

This is an issue she has devoted herself to studying in the hope of helping athletes plan their careers and futures better. Amanda plans to create a sports management group for national athletes and even school athletes, to better protect them and whatever they earn. We have heard too many stories of athketes who lost their saving to bad investments, fraud of even just poor planning. Her natural curiousity has led her in this direction. Being an athkete herself, this is something Alejandrino feels very passionate about.

“Imagine if the government or private investors invested in more sports equipment for cities and schools. We would have the facilities to train athletes and have better teams, giving the institutions more recognition, therefore more participants and of course, money. Imagine if these schools invested in more athletic scholars, even at middle school, these children off the streets could actually earn an education, earn a degree and eventually be able to pay taxes and contribute to society,” she posits. “Not only will this investment benefit the athletes but will open more job opportunities for team managers, coaches, utility men, and people in sports merchandising. More sports events would be held, giving jobs to people in events and enabling them to fund organizations. We may see this happening in the schools around us, but as I’ve observed, funding of sports facilities are not spread out very much outside the National Capital Region. A lot of children in the provinces still do not have the privilege of being educated in the sports. This is also a big downfall to our national athletes. It gives them less competition, making progression for them slow. Being a top athlete in the country doesn’t make you a top athlete in the world. It’s very hard for our athletes to realize this because of the small circle of competition.”

NU is studying what it would take for their national champion cheerleaders to compete against the best in the world in the INternational Cheer Union world championships in Florida later this year. This will be another opportunity for a sport, in Amanda’s own words, to unify a great number of Filipinos.

“I’d like to point out how sports and the victories it comes with bring people together,” she declares.”Patintero brought me and siblings together, UAAP games brings schools together, the Manny Pacquiao fights gather the nation in front of TV screens so effectively that even the crime rate goes down, and the Olympics or the FIFA World Cupsbrings the world together. It’s a healthy way to learn not only about the sport being partaken in, but it teaches us about different cultures and individuals. I know that the marketing of the sports industry and the effects it will have on society won’t be as simple as I have put it, but I believe that as one industry has impacted so many lives like mine, one person can also greatly impact an industry and a society too.”

As an older adult, I heaved a sigh of relief. If our young people today think like Amanda Alejandrino, then our country’s future will be in good hands.