DEAR next leaders of the country:
By week’s end you already know whether all the expenses, mudslinging, handshaking and backroom meetings for this year’s election were worth your while. As an incumbent, you have a fresh mandate from your constituents but if you are a first-time political winner, you are all overwhelmed by the context of it all. You suddenly are shaking more hands and smiling until your face really hurts.
You will have a formidable task ahead of you whether you are President or a councilor. Poverty, corruption, crime, health services, jobs, traffic and a million and one other problems will be heaped on you simultaneously. In the first days of office, you will have the energy to take on everything but being human, you will also feel the burden of your office as the days go by.
Allow this page to add one more concern for good measure: Throughout this campaign, sports was hardly ever mentioned.
Esteemed colleagues Recah Trinidad and Percy Della also echoed in their spaces what veteran sports scribe Eddie Alinea bemoaned that the sports agenda was not touched in the political discourse. There are so many more concerns in sports that require more than the ceremonial presence of an elected official in a sporting event.
The smallest mention by any presidential candidate of what they would do for sports would have been welcomed.
And yet it seems that the quickest solution to sports concerns is to put up still another multi-purpose center that can be a flexible basketball and volleyball court. The facility can also be useful as a relief center when natural disasters rampage through a community or as a celebration venue for whatever holiday.
But sports is more than just another basketball court, of which we have many through out the country.
What we need are genuine sports programs throughout the different barangays that will allow public recreation like parks and walking areas or facilities to hone future athletes in disciplines other than basketball. We also need to provide for opportunities for young athletes to be given proper training by qualified coaches as what the Leyte sports program had started years ago.
Yes, this will cost money but more than financial fiber, we need the leadership to make sports an integral part of community and youth development. Leadership can network diverse groups and encourage private business to support sports endeavors.
In turn, sports development will build healthier and happier communities. There will be places for sports for all ages and for elite athletes to gain opportunities to test their mettle against others from around the nation. Healthier communities will also mean less need for expensive health care.
So new leaders of this country, what do you say we include sports in different ways in your tours of duty? As you rebuild communities, think of how games and recreational centers can help build a stronger nation. Yes, a basketball court will help and can even be the venue for your next political sorties if you run for re-election. But more than another court, we need leaders who will make sports come to life and add life as well.
Follow me on Twitter@sportssev.