SOUTH UPI, Maguindanao, Jan. 4, 2015 — More than 120 children and youth from a diversity of faiths and ethnicities learned the basics of football as the KASIBULAN Festival went to Timani, Maguindanao on Dec. 27 to 28, 2014.
Coach Anthony Cabantog of the KASIBULAN Development Program, which has been instilling in kids the passion for football since 1998, expected some 50 to 60 kids to show up, but 120 young people participated in the Dec. 28 training, getting the chance to play and meet new friends.
Some 120 kids got the chance to learn football and meet new friends during the KASIBULAN Festival on Dec. 27 to 28, 2014. (Photo: KASIBULAN)
The organizers and the KASIBULAN team were so pleased with the positive response of South Upi and with the support given by Our Lady of Salvation Parish that they gave away 100 free footballs.
The balls were distributed to barangays, religious sectors, academes, social groups and to the new coaches trained by the program.
The KASIBULAN team believes that the balls will stir up the kids’ enthusiasm and desire to become better football players, leading one of the team members to remark, “Who knows, may be one of these kids would be kicking for Philippine Azkals in the near future?”
Cabantog, who is a product of the program himself, also got to teach 22 educators and volunteers the basics of the sport on Dec. 27.
Regional Grassroots Development Program Officer in the person of Coach “Abing” supervised the KASIBULAN team during the session.
Jaime Florano, a coach and an instructor of the team, expressed delight over the support of the new coaches and trainers.
According to him, the volunteers will play an important role as “the pivot point” for the kids’ supervision and for the on-going development of the kids.
Through the effort of Cabili Sinsuat Jr., the president of MAGCOCIFA (Maguindanao and Cotabato City Football Association) and a member of the Board of Governors of the Philippine Football Federation; in coordination with Second District Board Member Ibrahim Paglas IV,
the Municipality of South Upi in Maguidanao received a “kicking” year-end gift. (Sem. Ian Gacis Gimeno, JOMI/CBCPNews)