Davao City—The Department of Education (Deped) and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) kicked off their two-day joint national sports planning workshop at The Pinnacle Hotel and Suites here yesterday, ushering in a brighter direction for a unified grassroots sports development program in the country.
Echoing PSC Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez’s opinion, PSC Commissioner Charles Raymond A. Maxey said that these efforts to establish a more solid and wider-reaching grassroots sports program will also benefit the national sports associations.
“Elite sports will benefit from this since this becomes a feeder system for NSAs’ source of talents. And since our mandate is both grassroots and elite, through this, we are serving both objectives,” Maxey said.
Meanwhile, PSC consultant Prof. Henry Daut, talking about Grassroots Sports Pathway, likened grassroots sports development to farming, which he termed “sports farming”.
Daut said, “Sa pagtatanim, kailangan ng magandang binhi, ganun din sa sports. Kailangan ang talent selection. But we can’t rely on pure talent of an athlete to be a champion, kailangan ng fertilizers… ito yung mga experts na tutulong sa athlete na maging the best, maging excellent.”
He also said that the country’s dream of an Olympics gold medal remains elusive with the current system in acquiring the services of naturalized Filipino athletes to represent the country in various international competitions.
Daut added that it’s time to invest “on our own development”, identifying homegrown talents who will make the Philippines proud.
He cited tertiary schools for starting the development of elite athletes for product markets such as the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, Asian Games and the Olympics.
DepEd Region 1 regional director Malcolm S. Garma, on the other hand, thanked the PSC for providing an opportunity of convergence, in building up stakeholders not only for DepEd but particularly for the youth.
“DepEd is the biggest farm land of athletes in the country,” Garma said, adding that the scientific approach that PSC puts premium on in honing athletes’ skills and talents is what the education department needs.
He also agreed with Daut to start grassroots sports development saying, “high time to involve everybody. I hope this would be a start of a better collaboration between our agencies.”