In December last year, Marlon Maro, the head of coaching department the Philippine Football Federation, without much fanfare slipped into town. He attended the final day of the coaching seminar in Carcar City, which was made possible by the cooperation of the Central Visayas Football Association and the Carcar City LGU, which has a councilor that is an avid football fan.
Rodney Orale, the CVFA president, was elated with the seminar, not because it was one of the first in Cebu post-pandemic, but because of the support of the Carcar LGU made things smoother.
“This is the perfect way to do it, a partnership between the LGU and the CVFA,” Orale told me then.
And, in the final day, he was pleasantly surprised when, in a sign of support, the PFF sent Coach Maro in the final day.
The Carcar seminar was led by Jinggoy Roa, the CVFA technical director and before that, Jinggoy was in Bohol for a futsal coaching course, organized by the CVFA and Sagbayan FC. I don’t know of any other FA who had two grassroots seminars last year, and the CVFA holding two in two provinces in the space of two weeks was for me was what prodded the PFF to send Coach Maro to Cebu.
Carcar City, which has a sports stadium, is a sleeping giant when it comes to football. Not only is it a perfect host for seminars, it can also host national youth tournaments, or even a training camp of a national team.
It also has an active football community, led by the Real Carcaranon CF and I think the seminar will be the first step in Carcar taking a more prominent role in Cebu football.
Engr. Orale told me that he is hoping the CVFA can team up with more LGUs this year, mentioning Argao and Alcoy as areas with active football communities, a plan I’m sure the PFF is looking at with great anticipation.
You see, the PFF has for years cited the CVFA, then the Cebu Football Association, as an ideal FA for its numerous projects and initiatives. Some FAs simply wait for projects to fall in their laps, the CVFA doesn’t and instead, actively pursues them.
This plan to coordinate with LGUs is laudable since I know no other Cebu representatives of national sports associations are actively pursuing them.
This year promises to be a busy one for the CVFA, which will hold the Sinulog Cup this weekend. It will be at the Dynamic Herb Sports Stadium because the Cebu City Sports Center is unavailable.
Holding events at the city’s lone artificial pitch isn’t cheap, so that means a slightly more expensive registration fee. Still, 178 teams have signed up with only 10 slots remaining in six divisions as the Mixed 11, Boys 13, 17 and 19, Women’s and Men’s Open, Men’s Professionals and 40-above all hit their maximum quota.
After the Sinulog Cup, the much-anticipated Thirsty Cup returns at the CCSC and after that, the CVFA is planning to hold the Aboitiz Cup, the country’s longest-running multi-age group 11-a-side tournament.