A coo effort among government agencies and the Siklab Foundation of Presidential Adviser for Sports Dennis Uy is in the works.
And this involves the creation of a faculty of sports managers and coaches whose main objective is to find the hidden gems among K-12 enrollees.
Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez said yesterday that over 27 million students who are currently enrolled in the K-12 program will form a deep pool of potential talents where the PSC can perform its talent-identification activities.
“We have 27 million in our hands from 43,000 schools all over the country. If we focus on providing these 27 million kids with qualified coaches and trainers, you can predict that there will be good athletes coming from them,’’said Ramirez.
The Department of Education will be at the forefront of the project.
It is in the student population where the vast reserve of future athletes will come from in partnership with the PSC, the Commission of Higher Education, the local government units, Siklab Foundation and the United States Sports Academy based in Alabama.
Dr. Serge Opena, the PSC’s national grassroots sports development consultant, said the government sports agency will be sponsoring the first batch of 100 coaches, who will receive international certificates in sports from the USSA.
Opena explained that these coaches have been identified by the DepEd from different regions in the country.
They will implement the curriculum set by the USSA and carry out the training of trainers who will teach sports to kids in a scientific manner.
The 100 participants will undergo a three-day lecture and a coaching clinic for another three days under the USSA and PSC starting Aug. 19 at the PSI building at Philsports in Pasig City.