Fruits of a coach’s labor

Ihad quite a time last Saturday night, with football coach Jinggoy Roa and DB alums John Calo and Ronan Belleza in Jingoy’s plush home. Among the topics we discussed was an interesting one, the fruits of a coach’s labor. Nope, I don’t mean the financial rewards a football coach gets and I doubt all the football-related salary, allowance one can have can buy him or her a kitchen as swank as that in Jinggoy’s home. I’m talking about the players and their attitude, how a coach molds them. Now those are the fruits of a coach’s labor.

Jingoy’s sons are on scholarship in Manila, just like most of the other sons and daughters of coaches that I know of in Cebu, like Mario Ceniza, Glen Ramos, Eleazer Toledo and the like. These guys were long into football before they became parents and it was inevitable that their kids would get into the sport. What makes a football coach/dad differ from the usual football parent is that these guys know what it takes and anything their kids are going through, they’ve gone through before in spades.

They don’t complain about playing time or the like because they know a player must earn that starting spot and it isn’t earned by backroom pressure from a stage father.

Of course, good coaches don’t micro-manage their kids’ career path and have to let go at some point, which they all do once the kids make that choice of a college team. It is interesting, though, almost all the kids of coaches pick Manila schools over Cebu schools when it comes to college.

With two sons of his own, I’m sure John would love to be in that position where his kids get to choose which scholarships to accept, while Ronan of DepEd Talisay has hundreds of kids he’d hope someday will have the same opportunity.

He was previously involved with the Sisters of Mary Girlstown football team, and he is hoping the girls who have started a path on football will continue to do so because in a year or two, some of the Cesafi schools will be offering scholarships in girls football.

The Sisters of Mary—both boys and girls campus—is another sports gold mine that was discovered when Van Parmis started a basketball clinic there two Decembers ago. Now, Parmis is another coach reaping the fruits of his labor when he sees these gutsy kids who defy the odds take on Cesafi’s best in the newest 12-Under division of the league.