CEBU CITY ALLOCATES P4 MILLION FOR PALARO 2018

The Cebu City Government will allocate P4 million for the unified training of Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association athletes to improve their performance in this year’s Palarong Pambansa after dropping to ninth place last year. “This will provide the meals of the athletes and coaches. This is for all Region 7 not just for Cebu City division,” said Councilor Joy Augustus Young. “This is to show that we are united in our goal to get back to No. 4.” Region 7 had been a perennial fourth-place finisher in the national games until last year’s dismal finish.

The School for Sports Program will expand its reach with the goal to improve the performance of public school athletes in the annual Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa).

The School for Sports Program headed by Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) and supported by Department of Education (Deped) Cebu City Division and the Government of Cebu started last year.

“We’re going to double the number of coaches, we’re going to hire 50 specialist coaches. Last year we had 25. We started with an experimental phase last year and this time, we’re going to expand to four other schools,” said CCSC chairman Edward Hayco.

Hayco said that this program would be their answer to the declining performance of athletes coming from the public school.

“They need the support because it’s a public school. What we’re going to do with School for Sports Program is to identify athletes and put them in one class,” added Hayco.

Cebu City Councilor Joy Augustus Young said that the School for Sports Program is designed for public school athletes.

“In the 2018 Cviraa (in Bohol), the Cebu City division had 114 gold medals and only 17 came from public school, which is 15 percent. We want to see a 50/50 from public and private schools in the future,” said Young.

“It’s going to be a tough challenge but everything will start with one move and sports will always be a process you can’t change it overnight,” said Young.

The School for Sports Program will expand to Inayawan, Mambaling, Labangon, Talamban and Zapatera after starting out in Abellana National School and City Central School.

“It’s already in the pipeline to expand. We’re going to work it out in preparation for Cviraa next year. We hope to get more medalists from public schools,” said Hayco. /

SUNSTAR FILE HURDLE. Athletes from public schools only won 15 percent of the gold medals for Cebu City in the Cviraa, and Cebu City officials wants to improve that to 50 percent by expanding its school sports program.