In a public school system, there is the Inter-school, Unit Meet, Division Meet, NCR (National Capital Region) and the Palarong Pambansa Levels of sports competition. To get to the penultimate level of Palarong Pambansa wherein one will be acknowledged as a National athlete with corresponding benefits (for both player and coach), one has to undergo elimantion rounds from the Inter-school to NCR. This is how we tap potentially-gifted athletes from the grassroots level.

   However, how can we progress sports-wise in international competitions, when we do not select the best players because of blatant manipulations beginning from the Inter-school level?

  How do you justify a coach of a competing team sitting as part of the officials of a tournament? Despite protestations, this coach/alleged official is thick-faced that he will insist to be part of the officiating team? Then his team wins

  How do you explain that the other officials of the tournament are members of the same brotherhood wherein the coach/official is also a member?

   How do you give sensible reason as to why a declared winning coach of a team in a Division meet is unfairly and unjustly removed as head coach prior to his team's competition in the NCR level only because members of his school were cheated out of the team? A Division Meet sports team is a COMPOSITE team of students from the different schools comprising that of the Unit they belong to. The head coach who is listed as the official one for that composite team is declared the winner by virtue of the Unit's over-all championship.

  Despite that, the head coach was removed and replaced by the other Unit (who lost in the Division) coach because they belong to the same brotherhood. The official winning coach does not belong to that brotherhood.

  How do you untangle this kind of a mess when the head of a sports department in a national agency of education will singlehandidly suddenly create Guidelines in the holding of a tournament when it has never existed before? The Guidelines were done forthrightly and belatedly withinn a span of less than 24 hours as an offshoot to the protestation of the winning coach when he pointed out that there was no IRR with regards to the issues raised. The Guidelines were not even concurred in (no signature) by his immediate superior as should have been the proper procedure. In other words, it was done right under the nose of his immediate superior. tsk. tsk.

   The coaches of the teams should be certified public school teachers. And yet we have a situation were a non-teacher was hired by the national agency to serve as trainor whenb in fact there are qualified teachers who can train and coach all at the same time thereby saving the national agency a lot of money from outsourcing in terms of salary and benefits.

   Players who are winners in the Division Meet and NCR get cash incentives. Coaches get the same. However, I believe that monetary consideration for the teacher/coach as well as the trainers should be REMOVED to take away the blemish and misconception that the reason why they are so desperate to coach is only because of money and not dedication to the sport itself.

   So, tell me.....if this is the way we handle sports in the grassroots level, why do we wonder still that the country displays DISMAL results in an international competition?