FILE – PSC chairman Butch Ramirez. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — The National Academy of Sports is the country’s brightest hope to raise world-class athletes locally farmed from the grassroots level.
But the special school for sports won’t achieve the clear objectives it was created for without exceptional teachers guiding and educating the student-athletes.
Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William Ramirez said the NAS, created by law under Republic Act 11470, should hire the best teachers and coaches with outstanding credentials in sports development to produce excellent student-athletes.
“Great teachers produce great students. Schools become great because they hire the best headmasters and an outstanding faculty committed to a high level of excellence,” said Ramirez.
“If we cannot do this, then the NAS is doomed,” added the PSC chief, who himself was a college professor, a basketball varsity coach and former athletic director of the Ateneo de Davao University.
The NAS system, which will build its main campus at the New Clark City Sports Complex in Capas, Tarlac, will be headed by an executive director, preferably with a Master’s degree in sports education, management, sports science and a substantial experience in managing an educational institution.
The NAS will be governed by a seven-man board of trustees headed by Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones as chairman and Ramirez as vice chairman.
The PSC will handle the technical side of nurturing the growth and progress of student-athletes as future members of the national team in specific sports where they have a potential to attain a high measure of success.
“We have to do things right to achieve success and it begins by hiring an accomplished and outstanding team of school officials and teachers for the NAS,” said Ramirez.
The NAS has been designed to develop the athletic skills and talents of high school students in world-class sports facilities at par with international standards.
It will offer, on full scholarship basis, a holistic secondary education to natural-born Filipino citizens with considerable potential in sports.