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"WINNING IS NOT EVERYTHING"
By Juan Ramon R. Guanzon, GAB Chairman PhilBoxing.com Fri, 24 Oct 2014
"Winning is not everything. It is the only thing." This is what the coach of the dynastic champion in the NFL Green Bay Packers once said. It makes a lot of sense, which is why way back as kid when I became a sports fan, all I could do was pray as hard as I could that our athletes could win especially in the Olympics and Asian Games and most especially in boxing amateurs or professionals.
Now as senior citizen looking back, it?s still the same old cycle. Sports fan (including myself) praying and sports leaders offering excuses, finger pointing at every direction (except themselves) and promising to do better the next time. The next time never comes.
Winning has been the number one priority. I believe it should not be. Character Development among the youth should be.
From my own observation, a lot of undesirable results have happened when the number one priority is winning.
1. Our sports leaders have resorted to all sorts of methods to achieve the top priority by short cutting a naturally long process. They recruit perceived ?winners? or potential winners from sources other than their own. Look at the most recent occurrences at the national and international levels. Fil-Foreigners represent the country in international competitions and sometimes in sports that I, a die-hard sports fan (BMX cycling) have never heard. This is not to belittle the great achievement of Randy Caluag recently and the Fil-Foreigners who have represented the country in the past and recently. I am very proud and grateful to all of them for their sacrifice just to bring honor to our country. But their achievements always fall below the priority and national expectations. Nobody is rejoicing a 7th place finish in ASEAN competition, or ASEAN countries in the latest ASIAN Games. Now we?re promised a higher finished (4th) in the next ASEAN Games. Are we satisfied with that achievement assuming we place 4th?
2. In the pursuit of the priority, our sports leaders from the middle to the lowest level have resorted to cheating. An example is when there are competitions in the regional, provincial, city, or barangay levels, they recruit athletes not from their jurisdiction and resort to all kinds of effort to present them as their own. Worse, age qualifications are met by all sorts of blatant and innovative or creative cheating. Is this how we develop the character of our valued youth? By instructing them to falsify birth certificates, present birth certificates that belong to their younger siblings, or just by altering their ages in birth certificates? Isn?t that a national disgrace and shame whenever our sports leaders get caught?
If all our sports leaders, from the national down to the local barangay and schools sports leaders, reform the number one priority from winning to developing the character of our youth at the earliest possible age, winning will come naturally. Not necessarily in the form of medals won in international as local competitions in the short term. Character development is by definition a long and never ending process (no character is perfect). We therefore have to be patient as a nation. Our national sports leaders have to reform the priority and explain to the nation the priority so that the nation will not be expecting immediate success in winning medals.
If character development is the number one priority, the billions spent by the nation in sports, should be spent in the grassroots competitions of all sports. Instead of recruiting established athletes that more often than not, don?t win anyway. Heartbreaking and financially wasteful is when athletes in the elite national pool lose interest and just disappear from training quarters.
In reforming the priority of winning to character development, patience is the key. It may take at least five years to develop say a 12 year old athlete into a winner nationally or internationally. Even the three year term of local officials does not help in keeping the faith in patience. It is more convenient politically for a mayor or governor to recruit athletes from elsewhere and proclaim in media his credentials as a sports leader. In truth he?s not, but only spent government funds in the recruiting of athletes from without rather than within his jurisdiction. Recruitment expenses should have been invested in a mid to long term sport development.
A theme for sports leaders addressed to the nation should be ?Be in Sports not in Drugs?. This should be practiced and not merely preached.
If we reform the number one priority from winning to character development, I sincerely believe we will be hitting two birds with one stone.
1. More kids will have the opportunity to develop their skills in different sports at a young age. There will therefore be more athletes in more sports. Common sense tells us that the law of average will give us more and better athletes. Chances are we will have more athletes with improved skills through the years. This alone will definitely enhance our winning chances in the future.
2. More importantly, these kids in sports who would otherwise be in drugs would develop rather than destroy their character. I?ve always told parents whose children are in sports, not necessarily basketball, ?You should thank God the blessing that your child is in sports?. Because most likely he/she is developing his/her character. He/she does not have to reach the level of being a scholar let alone a PBA star. Whatever the level of excellence he/she achieves are just bonuses. We all know the effects of character destruction in our youth. The whole society feels the evil effects of drug addiction. Worse is that there are a growing number of victims of this addiction.
If sports leaders are patient in achieving glory in sports, I believe sports fans from all over the country will understand and will be patient. Instead of assuring everyone from the President down to Juan de la Cruz that we will do better and win next time, sports leaders should be courageous and frank that the priority is character development and winning will come in the future.
Therefore my humble proposal is for sports leaders to divert finances used in recruitment of established athletes to grassroots sports development programs. I believe the nation cannot loose with this priority. We will win against our struggle against drug addiction and escalating heinous crimes that goes with it. And we can win more medals and glory in international sports competition in the future. By not making winning the number one priority.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Juan Ramon R. Guanzon, GAB Chairman.
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