Can PHL billiards get over slump?

BACK when I was a college student, there were more billiard halls than internet cafes. And with halls charging as little as P3 a game--you were considered extravagant if you opt for the P20 per hour table--students regularly flocked to the pool hall after, and sometimes, during classes.

It was the height of popularity of pool in the Philippines, and even the games of pool legends Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante in England were aired live close to midnight here.

That was then. Now, there’s a World 10-Ball championships in Gen. Santos City and you’d be lucky if you’d get a livestreaming of the matches.

What happened? From being the second most popular masa sport in the country, with regular PHL vs. the World, PHL vs. the USA TV specials, to getting no airtime at all in TV?

Is billiards another victim of the Internet age? When kids are more interested in virtual games than the real action?

Perhaps. One of the Cebuano legends, Warren Kiamco, issued the warning as early as nine years ago, during a press conference for the Superbalita 9-Ball tournament. He said Philippine billiards was facing the possibility of getting overtaken by our Asian neighbors because while they are adopting billiards as part of their PE curriculum in grade schools, Pinoy pool halls were yet to get rid off its gambler’s image and mos of those who play the sport were those college guys like us, they skip school to play.

To get to the next step, Philippine billiard must become a mainstream school sport, not one where students have to lie where they’ve been in order to play.

Alex Pagulayan, chimed in, and said those who want to pursue a career in billiards must stay in school and wished that he had.

It may be nine years too late, but the Department of Education has finally started the step, including billiards as a demonstration sport in the Palarong Pambansa; the next step, of course, is including it in the as part of the PE curriculum.

And perhaps, should the program continue, the next generation of stars won’t come from the dark pool halls but from the schools and that’s not a bad thing, right?

Perhaps, too, with the new generation comes renewed interest from sponsors who’d take the sport to where it was 14 years ago, when there were live games as late as midnight.

Let’s hope because right now, all we can do is dream about the golden era of Philippine pool.