100 Years
The Freeman is 100 years old. And I am gratefully 21 years
old as a sports columnist, yes, with The Freeman. This bleacher bum will
forever be grateful to The Freeman for giving us the opportunity to do what we
simply love to do: write about sports. Please allow us to share our short tale
about how we ended up writing (again) as we say thanks to the grand daddy of
the Cebu print media industry.
I realize now that it’s rather ironic that after deciding
not to pursue a full-time career in journalism or anything related to the
media, I now write sports for one of the oldest news dailies of the country. Let
me go back a little further. As a young sports-loving student studying
communication, it was natural to attempt to become a sportswriter, a dream job
I had then. And when I was accepted to be a correspondent for a national daily,
I was naturally excited and thrilled. I was on a high when my name was printed,
”by Rico Navarro” under my first-ever story in a national daily, a preview on
the U.P. Fighting Maroons in 1988. When I showed this to my Journalism teacher
then, she automatically gave me a grade of 1.0 for the class, a promise she
made to any student who could have a regular story written on any
newspaper. Letters to the editor or
contributed stories weren’t counted in the deal. I was confident then since I
knew I could write sports for any of the national dailies. I had read the
sports pages of all the major dailies and knew deep within that I could write
like any them. All I needed was a break from any of the sports editors who
would give me a chance to write. That break came in the form of a go-signal
from sportswriting legends Tony Siddayao and Raffy Japa. But the high was
superficial when I eventually found out that I had a hard time mixing studies
with sportswriting and hardly earning from this. Whatever I earned from one
story was far less than what I spent for travelling to the sports event. It all
came to an end, albeit a temporary one, I realize now.
When I came home to Cebu for work in the 90s, I somehow
found myself writing again. I wrote press releases for the company for which I
worked as we needed PR mileage in the local dailies. These would regularly see
print in the business or community/neighborhood sections of Cebu’s local
dailies. This got my creative and writing juices going again and it was fun,
just like before; and I got paid for this too. As far as sports was concerned, I
wasn’t an active sportswriter then, but I wrote sports stories for press
releases of tournaments that we managed. Making a move to a local ad agency saw
me writing even more: from copywriting to press releases and advertising
campaigns. It was fun. We were also involved in organizing sports events and
were active in the scene, playing basketball, badminton and jogging. Through around five to seven years, I must
have had close to a hundred stories see print, but not as a writer for any
local newspaper. We also followed the local sports scene with CAAA and the CBL
as the big basketball events, the rise of the ALA Boys for boxing and the
over-all active local football scene. I also got involved with the CAAA as a
barker and aide to the Commissioner. I wrote about these events on my own, and
some of these would come out in the sports pages as “contributed story” or as a
press release. And when The Freeman’s sports editor Nimrod Quinones asked me to
write an opinion story about a sports issue/controversy back then, I gladly
obliged. This saw print in a highlighted boxed story, something that came as a
pleasant surprise. Nimrod then said that was my first column, then quickly
asked for name for a the column. “A column?” I asked. “Yes, a column with your picture on it,”
Nimrod said as he asked for a good quality ID picture of myself. This was in
the age of type-written columns that had to be sent to The Freeman’s editorial
office via fax. Going the full circle, I’ve also had the chance to write
regular sports coverage stories of games and issues aside from the column. Today,
I have the opportunity to work with current sports editor Manny Villaruel and
assistant sports ed Lemuel Maglinte.
Looking back, again I’m grateful for having been given the
chance to write about sports for The Freeman. I hope that Bleacher Talk has
added value to our sports page and has helped enlighten sports fans on the
issues that I write about. Special shout-out to the big bosses of the Freeman;
from our owners to the publishers to the editors-in-chief for who we have
written. I’m also grateful to all the readers and followers of the The
Freeman’s sports page and The Freeman over-all. Without you, we wouldn’t be
there today.
Happy 100th Birthday to The Freeman.
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Photo: Paul Jun Rosaroso |
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