First, the good news. The 3rd Silliman Football Cup, a first division open competition launched Dec. 13, 2011, and resumed Jan. 21, 2012, finally came to a successful ending with the awarding of the perpetual trophies and medals to the winning teams. I had written on Jan. 22 about a special addition to this event: “The on-going Silliman University Football Cup, on its third year of staging, is unique in the fact that the women’s division is sponsored by Foundation University. In my over 50 years of involvement in sports management, I am not aware of any similar sporting event being staged by an academic institution where a “rival” and an institutional “competitor” in sports sponsors and underwrites the cost of a component of the tournament. The SU Football Cup is a project of the Athletics Department of Silliman which is held from January to March, and play days are scheduled on weekends.
“Before FU VP for Finance & Administration Dean Sinco left for Hawaii, he instructed FU football coaches Vladimir Villacora, Geraldine Cabrera, Carl Cabetinga, and James Rubio to meet with their SU counterparts, and suggest that a women’s division be included in the tournament with FU underwriting the cost, as well as providing the venue for competition.
“On Jan. 10, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from FU coach Cabrera that they wanted to discuss the status of the women’s category of the Silliman Football Cup…’
“That meeting with Coach Cendrome, in-charge of the SU Football Cup women’s division and Coach Sienes for the men’s division, will become part of my happy memories in sports.”
Six teams participated in this inaugural staging of the SU Football Cup women’s division. The championship match was won by the NORFA Ladies Football Club beating FU with the score of 3-1.
The Perpetual Trophy, suggested by Coaches Sienes and Cendrome, was donated by FU President Dr. Mira D. Sinco. It was designed by the FU IYSPeace staff and crafted by Ben Cubalan, head of the FU Carpentry Shop, showing the seal of the two institutions held up by two hands, symbolizing the unity and friendship that this sporting event had forged between Siliman University and Foundation University.
FU VP for Finance & Administration and SU Athletics Directress Miriam Ramacho awarded the medals and the Perpetual Trophy to the winners.
Sports, indeed, is a wonderful instrument of peace.
Meanwhile, in the men’s division where 14 teams took part, the FU team, joining the tournament for the first time, brought home the Perpetual Trophy, after beating Old Skuls in a hard-fought game, to the tune of 1-0.
Now, the bad news. Our local NORFA U-23 football team was badly thrashed by its counterpart NOCFA in the U-23 Suzuki-Visayas qualifying round played last Sunday at the Filomeno Cimafranca Ballfield with a score of 4-1.
This lopsided score is a wake -up call for our local football officials to start working and put some semblance of a development program in place.
We at FU have persistently called for the holding of an organizational meeting of the members of NORFA so that we could get our acts together. But our pleas for the past three years have been ignored.
Football is marching time in Negros Oriental while the rest of the country is surging forward like neighbors Bacolod and Cebu.
The other bad news is that according to my contacts at the PSC, our local officials have backed out from hosting the Philippine National Games scheduled in May.
We have lost an opportunity to resurrect the dead “white elephant” of a Perdices Stadium.
Silliman University and Foundation University had both successfully hosted the UniGames and the PRISAA in the past. Perhaps, if these two institutions, with their collective resources and experience in hosting sporting events, were tapped, and with the support of the LGUs, we could have brought the PNG to Negros Oriental and our City of Gentle People. Sayang.
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