|
Thursday, 21 February 2008 |
LONDON - SAN Roque parish in Mandaue city is another breeding ground of football talents in Cebu province.
It has been very quiet in that part of the overcrowded barangay of Subangdaku for several years.
Quiet... until San Roque Football Club won the Men's Open title in the 1st Cebu Beach soccer championship in Badian last year and also the Men's Open crown and the 38 and above divisions titles of the Thirsty Cup held recently at the Cebu city Sports Center.
Back in the 80's San Roque produced countless of good footballers that most school varsities in Cebu city are made up of players from the parish.
LEGENDARY
Even the legendary M. Lhuillier football team of Graeme Mackinnon was made up almost entirely of players from the area.
The prolific striker Rene 'The Animal' Maambong, `small but terrible' defender James Pardillo, reliable defender Rene Inoc, willy wingman Rami Colina, Dennis Colina, the tiny Catarinen brothers Ramie and Eddie, and Bert Eco all come from SanRoque.
Even the tireless midfielders, the Aller brothers Genard and Gever and the Orejudos brothers Jose and Dante, all grew up and started playing ball at San Roque.
Those were in the 80's and then the talent flow started to decline in the 90's and in the early 2000.
The main reason was that, the San Roque field located inside the San Roque parish ground, is at the mercy of whoever is in charge of the parish.
DECLINE
It was the result of the non-involvement of the priest assigned in the parish to football.
When I visited San Roque in the summer of 2006, I was surprised of the football activity that the parish was involved in. They were then having the San Roque football festival.
Hundreds of age group teams were crowded in the parish grounds and dozens were seeing action in the five-a-side tournament inside the football pitch.
It was amazing to look at. I even got some video footage of that event.
REVIVAL
The main reason of the sudden revival was the appointment of football loving priest Rev. Fr. Ranilo Mahumot as parish priest.
Mahumot started to develop the parish grounds by constructing a parking space, building a decent canteen and then fixing the football field.
Fr. Mahumot did an amazing job in re-building San Roque. That was when San Roque Football Club kicked off it's revival.
Tireless Ivan Ancajas then led the SRFC reorganization with the help of Marlon Escoton and many more football loving San Roque parishioners.
Ancajas was a member of the University the Visayas Greenbooters during his college days.
SRFC now has more than 200 players in different age group categories plus girls age 12 and 17.
Cebu International School coach Eliezar Toledo is now one of the new generation of football leaders in San Roque.
Toledo used to play for me at University of San Carlos in the early 90's.
He then transfered when I left USC in 1994 to the University of San Jose-Recoletos to resume his college football career and finish his Business Administration course.
Toledo is football fanatic through and through and even quit his salesman job to concentrate on coaching kids.
He coached the Bright Academy first but moved to Cebu International School last year.
So in love is Toledo with football that he managed to convinced his wife to take up the sport.
His wife, a former gymnast at University of Southern Philippines, is now the skipper of the San Roque ladies team.
San Roque has been a leader in football development in Cebu.
Football is currently getting back the support from the parish leaders. A number of kids are also being trained and developed.
With this new development there is now reason for this tiny but vibrant community to dominate Cebu football once again. GOD BLESS
Email the author
|
