I noticed in my two decades of interviewing coaches, specially in basketball, I often hear the words, “finding the chemistry”. When they achieved victory, they would say something like, “Suwerte mi Mo kay maayo kaayo ang chemistry sa among team karon” or “We found the right chemistry”.
My brother Merell John loves chemistry and even pursued higher education of that scientific discipline. He is into “atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and the changes they undergo during a reaction with other substances”. Sounds complicated to sportswriters like us.
But in sports, you can say indeed there should be chemistry. When forming teams, coaches carefully choose the players who will occupy various positions. Ikaw ang center, ikaw ang point guard, forward, etc. Murag chemicals pud noh?
Since this is the election season, mix sports with politics? Okay ba na?
If we review our notes from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Movement seminars, sports, just like what we read in the Constitution, is separated from politics. Murag sad ug separation of the Church and State (remembered this Atty.Randy F. Babao of Napolcom-XI during our political science class under Mr.Ricky Enriquez at Ateneo?).
But in reality, during the election season, sports and politics are mixed. Politicians use sports events as a tool to promote their names and platforms. In sports, you can easily gather children and their parents, who are voters.
That’s how it is in sports during election season.
If you are a member of the sports community, you would be glad that there are would-be or current politicians who are engaged in sports or would include sports in their platform of government. Why? Because not all politicians love sports. They are into something else like housing the homeless, health care programs for the indigents, empowering the women or differently-abled sectors, etc.
Everybody knows in the sports community about former Special Assistant to the President(SAP) Bong Go who is running for Senator.
Prior to joining the Senate race, Secretary Bong was actually Davao City’s sports chief, in addition to his hectic job as executive assistant to then Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
He likes to play basketball and other sports like golf and jet ski. He loves to be in the sports community. Truth is, he has been consultative with sportswriters, sports officials, referees and fans.
Despite his hectic schedule as Mayor Digong’s executive assistant, he has in his mind what he can do for sports.
He has closely coordinated with various sports leaders, including the “badlongons” because they are part of the sports community.
So, our roles as part of the sports community is to provide him the right information. Dili botbot, intriga intriga, kay di ay gusto’g funding. Kay sa tinood, managad ra gyud ug naay tuyong funding nang uban diha. They forgot that sports is about being friends, helping each other, to keep the youth away from the wrong group who are involved in drugs, to keep our society healthy. Ana ra ka simple mga higala.
Politics, we’ve heard, ang pasabot, poli poli ug tikas.
But not this Bong Go, not this Duterte administration.
So if you love the sports community, don’t forget Bong Go because he loves the sports community too. He is one of us.
Believe me, even if he is no longer in any positions in government, Bong Go will remain a sportsman for others.
