WITH the Philippine Sports Commission not spending a single centavo, Commissioner Edgar Hayco hopes to tap the network and infrastructure of the Private Schools Athletic Association to expand the PSC’s grassroots sports development programs nationwide.
“We are looking for a partnership with the PRISAA so we can widen the reach of our grassroots sports projects without practically any cost to the PSC since the institution has the resources and network to do so,” Hayco said.
Hayco said he had already talked about the joint venture with PRISAA executive director Elbert Atilano during the revived PRISAA National Games held recently in the latter’s hometown of Zamboanga City.
With around 400 PRISAA member schools spread in 17 regions of the country, Atilano said his idea is to adopt an athlete at the elementary school level then funnel them through the PRISAA schools once they reach the high school level.
“We have done this in our barangay outreach (programs) in Zamboanga City but now we are adopting it so now it will be the athlete at the elementary level who would benefit from our PRISAA programs,” said the former Zamboanga city councilor and Universidad de Zamboanga athletic director.
He noted that once the elementary school athletes are identified, the PRISAA member schools in their localities will absorb and develop them considering they have coaches hired to specifically mentor various sports.
“We are aware that at the elementary school level, most of the coaches of the athletes work part-time since they are PE teacher but our schools hire them full-time for various sports,” Atilano said.
“Since our coaches will have (the) time, they will go to their localities to conduct specialized training and scout those with potential and recruit them to our respective schools once they reach high school,” he said.
Credited as one of the discoverers of Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Hidylin Diaz, Atilano, a certified weightlifting coach, said this was how the athlete was identified at an early age and later groomed to become a world-class athlete.
Hayco said the athletes identified and absorbed by the PRISAA schools would be assured of better training once they get into the PRISAA system.
