Bleacher Talk

What a ride it has been indeed for the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP). From the turbulent times when Pinoy Basketball was on the downhill part of a roller coaster ride, it sure looks like it is now in good hands more than ever. Yes, biased I am but after attending an SBP workshop, a board meeting and a national congress the past two days, I can’t help but be proud with what we’re seeing so far. I speak after having experienced attending the tense-filled 2007 national congress that sought to re-engineer/create a brand new national sports association for Philippine Basketball; listen/read all the sad news about the ongoing squabbling at the Philippine Olympic Committee, and deciding to take a direct hand in developing Cebu youth basketball since 2008. With a clear direction on what it wanted to achieve, the SBP embarked on an ambitious campaign to take Philippine basketball to greater heights. Make no mistake about it. The organization isn’t perfect and does have improvemen...

CVFA Football. Sports fans, more particularly football enthusiasts, must now get used to hearing this new term. From Cebu Football, it will now be called CVFA Football with the rise of the regional football association under the umbrella of the Philippine Football Federation: the Central Visayas Football Association. The CVFA was set up in the first quarter of the year and is gung ho on giving the region football activities all-year round. The CVFA is led by its president Engr. Rodney Orale, civil engineer and contractor by profession. Did you say busy? Ever since the new set of officers took over, they’ve been busy preparing the year ahead. A gold medal for Central Visayas in Elementary Football at the Palarong Pambansa greeted / highlighted the summer. Region 7 also won the silver medal in Secondary Football at the Palaro in Davao. Following this feat was the holding of the Allianz National Youth Futsal tournament Cebu leg for the Boys and Girls Under 14 and 16 age groups. The...

It’s that time of the year when we take a look at Cebu Boxing and check on its vital stats. Is it alive? Healthy? Vibrant? Or is it struggling? Barely surviving? How I wish I had great news to share with you on the issue. The country had a total of 54 fight cards since the start of the year. Five of these were held in Cebu; that’s nine percent of all fight cards. Three of these were promoted by Big Yellow Promotions, while Omega and Naris/RWS took care of the others. We should still be thankful that these promoters emptied their pockets to stage these fight cards. But did you say that Cebu is the hotbed of Philippine Boxing? Sure looks like it isn’t anymore. Among the five Cebu fight cards of 2019, none can be considered as “big time” boxing, with the Pinoy Pride series as benchmark. All were small cards that were held in different venues and where admission was free. It looks like gone are the days when boxing fans looked forward to going to the Waterfront Hotel for a night...

Each time elections come around, we get excited and anxious over who wins and the sports programs they’ll implement during their term. As a sports-loving Cebu, we’ve had our share of successes that have reached the highest levels. And all this started at the bottom where our local leaders play a huge role in sports grassroots development. Let’s take a look at the biggest winners of the recent elections and see what may happen next under their leadership. The biggest change is at the provincial capitol where Governor-elect Gwen Garcia makes a return to an office she once occupied. Making it interesting is that her incoming Vice Governor is no other than the current Governor Junjun Davide. Both are well-known to support sports and have ventured on big impact sports activities during their terms as governor. Gov. Davide’s biggest move was to revitalize the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission (CPSC). The CPSC ran a number of activities, and the biggest ones were the Governor’s Cup f...