Next world-class athletes to come from K-12—PSC

To find the next generation of world-class Filipino athletes, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will dig into the K to 12 program where over 27 million students are currently enrolled.

PSC Chair Butch Ramirez said that a collaboration among government agencies and the Siklab Foundation of presidential adviser for sports, Dennis Uy, would create a faculty of sports managers and coaches whose main objective is to discover the hidden gems among senior high school enrollees.

“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,” Ramirez told the Inquirer.

The Department of Education will be at the forefront of the project where the vast reserve of future athletes will come from in partnership with the PSC, the Commission on Higher Education, the local government units, Siklab Foundation and the United States Sports Academy based in Alabama (Ussa).

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 100 coaches, identified by the DepEd from different regions in the country, 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.

This is practically the same formula which made Cuba an Olympic force.