For the love of football: Tales from the Ceres Cup in Bacolod

Bob Guerrero

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For the love of football: Tales from the Ceres Cup in Bacolod
The massive festival near Bacolod illustrates the passion for youth football all over the Philippines

BACOLOD, Philippines – The numbers of the 3rd Ceres Cup, held from May 21 to 22 in Talisay and Silay, on the outskirts of Bacolod, are startling. 

About 440 teams joined in a passel of age group categories. The youngest was mixed boys and girls, born 2007, and the oldest was the 40-and over men’s, where yours truly made a brief and forgettable appearance for my friends in Old Skool FC of Dumaguete.

If we can estimate 12 players per team, we can say there were more than 5000 footballers on hand for that one weekend. 

There were 60 teams in the most populous division, Born 2000 boys. In the Born 1997 ladies there was a remarkable turnout, 30 teams. The matches were all 7-a-side. 

Ceres’ immaculate training pitch in Ayala North in Talisay was the main venue, but there was also play in a nearby school and in a field beside the famed Ruins of Silay. According to organizer Nicolas Golez, as many as 380 staffers helped run the tournament, which was universally praised by the participants as one of the best-organized competitions many had participated in. Dozens of Ceres buses were on hand to ferry teams from one pitch to another. (All of the championship matches were held in Ayala North.) 

Amazingly, the registration fee was only P800 per squad. That helped attract teams from all over the country who needed to pay for transportation, lodging, and food. Clubs from Iloilo, Cebu, Davao, Manila, and of course all over Negros. There were teams from Leyte as well as clubs from Zamboanga, Sarangani, Compostela Valley, and Koronadal, South Cotabato. 

Each side had a story, all that gave a glimpse into the enduring love of the game all over the archipelago. 

The Hotbed. 

Santa Barbara, Iloilo, a stone’s throw from Iloilo’s airport, has always existed under the shadow of Barotac Nuevo. But the small town has produced its share of national team players like Jovanie Simpron, Jason Cordova, and Bervic Italia. But for Kirby Suoberon and Jonnah Lustria, their goal is to produce fine women’s players. 

As I interview the two coaches in the north field, Suoberon and Lustria are basking in a 2-0 win for the Santa Barbara Futbolilits U19s against Kalibo, while the U13s overrun Old Sagay, 5-1. 

Old Sagay girls in white take on Santa Barbara. Photo by Bob Guerrero/Rappler

“Nag-improve talaga ang skills ng mga girls ever since nag-umpisa kami in 2013,” says Lustria. (The girls have improved a lot since we began in 2013.)

“Maraming tuluy-tuloy ang training.” (We have continuous training sessions.) 

Santa Barbara has a proper pitch, although a pathway bisects it at the halfway line. 

The team has gone through a lot to come here. They fortunately have a sponsor, but nonetheless have to cram 6 players into a pension house room designed for 3 people. But it’s all worth it, since the two coaches love the proper fields and the higher standard of refereeing in the Ceres Cup, two aspects that are not always present with the other festivals the team joins.

Lustre and Suoberon know a bit about refereeing. They have both been referees assigned to women’s matches in AFC competitions in Vietnam. 

The two volunteer as coaches in their spare time. Lustria works in a day-care/play-home center for kids. But both she and Suoberon count football as their passion. 

The Futbolilits U13 team wins first-runner up, and Suoberon is one proud coach, holding the trophy in her current Facebook profile picture. 

The Matriarch. 

Cherry Jocson is beside the field in Silay, wearing a blue-and white striped hat, while her side, Sum-ag FC, toils in the oppressive summer heat against St. John’s. The conditions are made doubly hard by the side’s choice of uniform, black Real Madrid third-kit knockoffs. 

Sum-ag FC. Jocson in white wearing hat. Photo by Bob Guerrero/Rappler

Sum-ag is an agricultural town in the outskirts of Bacolod where rice and sugar cane are grown. Jocson, an entrepreneur, started the club when her kids picked up the game. Even though they have moved on, she continues organizing as many as 50 players of varying age groups. 

“Naawa ako sa kanila,” (I take pity on them), says Jocson. “If I can see that there are talents who can be good enough to play for the Negros Island Region team, I want to help.”

She points out 13-year-old Justin Mesina, who wants to be a professional. He has done well in the Ceres Cup despite a tough loss to Saint John’s. Paul Padios is another one of her key players who idolizes Stephan Schrock and never passes up a chance to see him at meet and greets.

(READ: A conversation with Azkal Stephan Schröck)

Sum-ag FC is like many provincial clubs. They lack sponsorship, their field in the national high school needs rehabilitation, and they face a chronic shortage of balls. But they are luck in some ways. Their Barangay has chipped in, and a licensed coach from the Negros Occidental Football Association helps out.

Many football programs all over the country begin with parents, and often times end with them as well, once the kids lose interest. It’s amazing that Jocson continues to help her club even if her own children are no longer part of it. 

The Reptiles. 

Crocs FC would be an unusual name for a football club, but goalkeeper coach Eric Salumbides has a very good explanation. 

They play in Crocodile Park Football Field, which, as the name suggests, is in a Crocodile farm twenty minutes from Davao City. Fortunately, Eric says, the reptilians are far enough from the pitch that stray balls will not creep into their enclosures. 

Crocs player in orange. Photo by Bob Guerrero/Rappler

Crocs, founded by Christian Ea, is a club with about 90 players, most of which are paying members from families with some means. They do, however have a few gifted scholars. Over 40 players from Crocs made the trip to Bacolod. 

Crocs has entered events like the Alaska Cup in Alabang, as well as the Del Monte Cup in Bukidnon and festivals in Davao itself. They are a young side, with the oldest player just 14 years of age and the youngest only 8.

Davao has one big advantage over other provincial football centers. It has a proper senior 11-a-side league, which Salumbides has played in. Perhaps it’s a big reason why Davao reached the final of the Smart U22 National Championship this year, only falling to Negros Occidental in the final. 

So things are definitely looking up for the future of football in the hometown of our incoming president. But once again, a lack of fields hampers development. Salumbides says the city’s main field, Tionko field, is not in great shape. There are reports of an artificial football field coming soon to Davao, which would be a great boost for the game there. 

The School Powerhouse

Marc Agriam and Vince Arriola are at the Ceres Cup with their team from Jaro, Iloilo. They are composed of players from Central Philippines University, long a source of footballing talent in the area. Two NU Bulldogs, Jekar Sullano and Chris Perocho, are also here. 

Agriam has been a grass roots development officer of the PFF in the area. Arriola, who works in Philhealth, helps coach the girls teams. 

Jil Pillora is with the Jaro team. The 14-year old was part of the batch of young Pinoy talents that went to the UK to train at the the famed Lougborough youth training center in 2013. Piloria, (a boy, despite the female-sounding name), also has experience playing in the UFL youth with Global. He likes to play from the right flank and is equally adept at scoring and dishing for assists. Lionel Messi is his idol.

Arriola says that they love the Ceres Cup because of the plethora or fields. There are about half a dozen in the North Field, as many in the Silay field, and even more at Carlos Hilado Memorial College. Arriola says that in other festivals, where fields are limited, there is often a wait of several hours just to play. It doesn’t usually happen with the Ceres Cup. 

But for Ilonggo kids like Jil to develop, there needs to be a better schedule of eleven-a-side tournaments. There is a league of private schools and another one for state schools in Ioilo. But the leagues are reportedly only single-round robin, and one has only four sides. For youth players to develop, conventional wisdom is that they need 30 to 40 full-length eleven-a-side matches a year, impossible with that schedule, even if some universities or colleges play in the Unigames. 

So the need will be for more long-term leagues. Hopefully as the Iloilo Football Association transitions into the Panay Football Association as part of the PFF’s restructuring, changes will come.

The Road Warriors. 

Perhaps no football team in the Ceres Cup demonstrates passion for the game more than St. Alexius FC from Koronadal, South Cotabato, a Hiligaynon-speaking corner of southern Mindanao. 

Ricardo Pusoc Jr., from Iloilo, lives in Koronadal and serves as the local grassroots development officer and coach. The 41-year old began the program 4 years ago. They are one of a handful of clubs in the city. 

“Kung saan may festival, diyan kami pumupunta,” says the soft-spoken coach. (Wherever there is a festival, we go.) They have played in the Del Monte Cup in Bukidnon as well as the Alaska Cup. 

The school-based side’s party of about 30 players, coaches and parents left Koronadal for Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte at 2 am on May 19. Ten hours later they arrived in Dapitan and took off for a 6-hour ro-ro trip to Dumaguete. Once they hit land in Negros they faced yet another six-hour land trek to the west side of Negros. They finally reached Bacolod all bleary-eyed at 1:00 am on May 20. 

The St. Alexius crew stayed in classrooms at Carlos Hilado Memorial College, bathing in the toilets using the traditional tabo-tabo technique, and sleeping on foam mattresses they rented for fifteen pesos a day. They U14s lost in the quarters in a shootout while the U11s just missed out of qualifying from the group stage. One of their players, Egil John Rojo, has played in the UFL youth for Laos FC. 

“No regrets, enjoy kaming lahat. Maganda naman ang result ng mga games, di kami masyadong bugbog,” says the coach. (No regrets, we all enjoyed, and the results of the games were good. We didn’t lose so badly.) 

The team passed the hat, raising funds through the parents, and were fortunate to have a generous gas station owner who pitched in to help. While many of the players come from St. Alexius College, a private school, others needed to buy their spikes from “ukay-ukay” vendors, and the club’s equipment is largely donated. 

But the most insane part about St. Alexius’ trek to the Ceres Cup is that Bacolod, (or Talisay, to be specific), was not even the farthest point of their journey. Right after they finished the Ceres Cup they took the ferry to Iloilo City then made the long trip over land to Boracay, where they participated in a beach football competition. Naturally they did the entire trip backwards just to get home to Koronadal. 

But incredibly, they have their sights set even further. Pusoc says they dream of playing in the Singa Cup youth tournament in Singapore, if they can find a sponsor.

With the dedication of people like Coach Pusoc, Pinoy grassroots football can certainly go anywhere they imagine. – Rappler.com

Rappler thanks Ceres La Salle FC, especially Leorey Yanson and Nicolas Golez, for making this article possible. 

Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.

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