Futsal bronze shines like gold
By Jasmine W. Payo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:47:00 12/23/2007
MANILA, Philippines—In the growing sport of futsal, a bunch of athletes recently turned garbage into, well, bronze. Literally.
In fact, the members of the Philippine women’s futsal team will be the first to tell you that the bronze medal that adorned each member’s neck at the end of the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand recently was dug from trash cans and piles of refuse.
So don’t blame them if they see a golden shine in their medals.
“Futsal is a relatively new sport, so there wasn’t any money for this team,” said goalkeeper and co-captain Tiffany Batungbacal. “When the coaches told us there won’t be any money, we all decided that we could do it on our own.”
To address the question of financing the team’s participation in the biennial meet, in a sport inserted on the roster specifically to boost Thailand’s gold medal machine, the team had a simple game plan: sell newspapers, bottles, ink cartridges and old clothes.
“We collected them from our families, friends, colleagues and offices,” said Batungbacal. “We actually got stuff from garbage cans in Ateneo and also at the University of Asia and the Pacific.”
Team members also organized futsal clinics and tournaments and held raffles, solicitations, events and garage sales.
“It was a choice that we made after thinking long and hard of the sacrifices we needed to undertake as national athletes,” winger Carla Isabel Paredes said.
“Part of these sacrifices was the money we needed to raise to fund the participation fee for the SEA Games. The PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) informed us that there was no budget for our team. So we left no stone unturned in order to raise funds.”
And it was a reality that team members understood since futsal—an indoor version of football where each team fields in five players on court—is still perceived as a novel sport in the country.
“Sometimes you really have to prove yourself first before sponsors come in,” said Manny Batungbacal, team coach and Tiffany’s husband.
“In fairness to the PSC, they didn’t have any budget also,” said Batungbacal. “We’re a relatively new sport and it’s harder to gamble on us compared to boxing and all the other popular sports.”
But with funds still short a week before the SEA Games, the couple decided to sell their car.
“We’ve been really planning to sell it,” shared Batungbacal. “Days before we left for Thailand, we still lacked P250,000 and we sold the car for P220,000. But we had no regrets at all.”
Despite the off-court difficulties, the squad never lost its focus on the game.
“We knew our weakness—speed, strength and core,” said Batungbacal. “Our coaches did their homework; they did their strategies and plays. The team was open enough to re-learn things.”
The 14-member squad, composed mostly of former soccer players, is also relatively old—in sports years, at least—with an average age of 27.
“We’re not the strongest, biggest and fastest, but we really worked hard,” said Batungbacal. “We understood each other and that really helped. We’ve been together for two and a half years. That’s one of the things that gave us the edge.”
In their bronze medal match against Malaysia, the Filipinos triumphed at 3-1 with Shella Ninobla delivering the goals in the ninth and 26th minute and Marigen Ariel contributing in the 11th.
“They’re not the best set of players but they made it work,” said assistant coach Paul Encarnacion. “The game they played against Malaysia, that’s the first time I really saw them play as a team. Everybody was selfless.”
With the feat, good news started trickling in, including a guarantee that the PSC will reimburse the squad’s expenses.
“This isn’t a perfect team,” said Batungbacal. “We had our fights. But at the end of the day, we played for our country, for the people who believed in us and for each other in the team.”
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