CEBU, Philippines — About 10,000 public school children aged six to 18 years old will converge at the Cebu City Sports Center today for the culmination of the 'Summer Grassroots Sports Training Program' spearheaded by the Cebu City Sports Commission.
The activity that will start at 1pm will serve as CCSC's final assessment on the young aspiring athletes after more than three weeks of training last month. The kids will have a mini tournament for each sport to display the skills they acquired in the course of their training.
CCSC chairman Ed Hayco expressed that the program continues to thrive since its inception in 2001.
"An 18-year journey since 2001 is bearing fruits. A very meaningful purpose for the 800 volunteers, aged 10 to 15 who shared their athletic gifts to the beginners," said Hayco.
"When dancesport started bringing the elite sports of dance to the barangay through the prodding of Mayor Tom (Osmeña) in 2001, the challenge seemed daunting. Today, it's not just dancesport, the spirit of sharing through volunteerism have spread to 22 kinds of sports from gymnastics, to swimming, running, arnis, and etc.... and is now located in 20 schools."
"We will strengthen and expand our monthly Junior Olympics and the School for Sports Program of Councilor Joy Young. These two programs will provide the youth an athletic career path and prepare them for the Palaro and college," added Hayco.
CCSC's free summer grassroots program featured 25 sporting events - basketball, archery, air rifle, arnis, badminton, beach volleyball, boxing, chess, muay thai, dancesports, futsal, karatedo, lawn tennis, pencak silat, scrabble, sepak takraw, softball, baseball, table tennis, taekwondo, touch rugby, track and field, volleyball, weightlifting, wushu, and gymnastics.