I was the happy recipient of an email from Rafael T. Lizares Jr., organizing chair of the National Selections Tournament: “I would like to formally invite your school to send a team to the Girls U13 National Selections tournament at the Panaad Stadium, Bacolod City (April 18-20, 2012) and the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College, Talisay City (April 21-22, 2012).
This will be a single round-robin tournament where teams from Manila, Davao, Cebu, and Negros Occidental will be participating. It is open to teams with girls born between Jan. 1, 1999 and Dec. 31, 2001.
During the tournament, national coaches will be selecting the training pool from which the national team will be selected that will participate in the Asian Football Confederation Festival of Football in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam (June 9-16, 2012). This is the third year we are participating in this event.
Please be advised that selected players will have to undergo the initial stage of the training pool on April 23-30, 2012 at the Panaad Stadium. The final selection will be trained in Manila starting May 5, 2012 prior to departure for Vietnam.
Board and lodging expenses will be for the account of the participating teams as we are sponsoring only the tournament expenses.
The invitation caught us flat-footed because the responsibility of forming a competitive team to represent Negros Oriental is that of the Negros Oriental Football Association, headed by Dick Emperado, and of which FU is a bona fide member having paid its annual dues.
NORFA has so far failed to respond to our call for a general meeting for the past three years so that member clubs could pitch in to respond to PFF calls for active participation in national tournaments such as this issued by Lizares.
Despite a heavy summer sports schedule, FU coaches headed by Vladimir Villacora, Geraldine Cabrera, James Rubio and Carl Cabetingan began to recruit young girls to compose the team. Words were sent out and support of parents were secured.
Surprisingly, in less than 24 hours, the following girls have indicated their desire to join the try-outs and with high expectations of making the national team:
From Tanjay: Josephine Katrina Bracken, Jacquiline Kristina Bracken, Raylin Bianca Pauline Rosales, Lianne Rosales, Eiffel Vince Canaveral.
From Valencia: Michaela Jumawan, Kiara Kynzel Trozzi, Fritzyl Lorico.
From Dumaguete: Nikki Drinah Duran, Krisha Cleire Maria Torres, Ma. Flordeliza Las Pinas, Sue Peralta, Janine Tan, April Joy Curray.
A lone entry from Siaton is Florenz Marie Acson.
Sourcing the budgetary requirements for participation, which amounts to some P140,000 just to cover food, snacks, transportation, and contingency, is a problem and which FU alone will find difficult to provide. Parents are asked to help defray the cost of daily meals and snacks for the seven-day duration of participation.
Noting in the email of Juny Lizares that we have to likewise bear the burden of accommodations, I rushed an email to him requesting that the team be provided free lodging in schools either in Talisay or Bacolod. Lizares assured us that arrangements will be made for billeting at the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College in Talisay.
As I write this piece, I cannot help but feel a tinge of disappointment and frustration at the knowledge that forming this team of young Under 13 girls to represent Negros Oriental in an important event — that provides them opportunity to represent our country in an international competition — should be a shared endeavor joyfully and enthusiastically pursued by football stakeholders in our Province.
Yet, I get the feeling that Lizares had to issue a last-minute invitation addressed to Foundation University so that Negros Oriental could be represented.
So once again, I appeal to the representation of NORFA to please come out and rally us, the stakeholders and lovers of football in our Province, to join the national “mania” for football in our country. For the sake of the children and young people who could be transformed through sports to be the kind of citizens that we want to take over after us, please do your sacred duty that you have sought and promised to perform when you were elected officials of NORFA several years ago.
