I SAT down recently with grizzled sports official Steve Hontiveros, the current President of Larong Hockey sa Pilipinas but the topic was not this sport.
You see in the olden days, meaning when I was just starting to write sports stories for Sports World, later on for Sports Weekly Magazine in the late 70s to the 80s, Steve was in tenpin bowling, and hockey did not exist yet here.
The sport’s National Sports Association (NSA) then was the Philippine Bowling Congress (PBC) .
And there was no other government funding agency then that was specifically geared towards sports. But there was the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), headed by Nereo Andolong, and all the NSAs wanted him as President. The POC, among others was one that he accepted.
And tenpin bowling was hot as in the Philippines was lording it in the South East Asian Games (SEAG).
The fact is, when the sport was first introduced in the 1977 SEAG, Steve remembers our bowlers, led by now Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner Bong Coo and Paeng Nepomuceno, among others, won seven of the eight gold medals at stake and settled for silver in one.
The team felt bad that they failed to sweep all the golds.
This was the time too that he said together with boxing and billiards, they were the top three producers in SEAG staging wherever it was held.
The time too that in local tournaments in Coronado Lanes in Makati, Greenlanes in Greenhills, and Bowling Inn along Taft Ave. in Manila, prizes being offered included cars for perfect games.
Well, Toyota’s Pablo Carlos was a bowling patron then, and even a house and lot.
I remember doing a story then that I titled “The Corolla That Got Away”, because the bowler, I cannot remember his name now, strung 11 strikes in a row, and a 12th strike would win him that Toyota car. And with everyone holding his breath watching in silence, the guy rolled what looked like a solid strike, and missed with I think one pin refusing to fall down.
Actually, the reason why I sat down with Steve that time was because Mike Keon specifically asked ne to include him among the people we should interview for the Project: Gintong Alay book that we are currently working on together with Mike himself, Noel Albano, Ignacio Dee, and Bong Pedralvez.
You see, this Gintong Alay that Mike started in 1979 focused only on athletics, eventually expanded to cover other sports and we wanted to show in the book the entire gamut of the program.
But as Steve related , Mike only wanted sports that were delivering internationally and ten pin bowling fit that requirement.
Steve remembers going to Mike’s office at Rizal Memorial to discuss how Gintong Alay can help the sport.
Initially, Mike started paying for the bowling fees of the national team members for their training in the different bowling centers. He also bought equipment for the team and subsidised their travel abroad for competition.
And the bowlers were delivering left and right.
Middle East countries wanted Filipino bowlers as coaches and trainors, and we were looked up to worldwide with the achievements of Bong, Paeng, Rene Reyes, Lita de la Rosa, who converted from duckpin to tenpin and won a world title, and Bec Watanabe. Coach then was Madoka Amano though Rene eventually moved up to coaching.
. But then things changed and other South East Asian countries caught up with us and bowling has not been delivering the way it did before.
I asked Steve what he thought was the reason and he cited science as a major factor, technology in terms of sports equipment,including the many types of balls now to suit different conditions.
I remember when I also sat down with Bong a couple of years ago, she also mentioned the fact that during her time, whenever she campaigns abroad, she only brought two kinds of balls.
But now. a bowler needs 5 to 6 balls to be competitive abroad.
Actually, technology has affected not only bowling but also golf, tennis, archery, shooting, and others, not in terms of equipments used, and also in terms of sports science that has revolutionised training programs of athletes.
We both agreed that talent as a factor has gone down as technology has made it easier for less talented athletes to excel.
It was a good talking session between two veterans in sports,meaning old people, but then, that is life.
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Watch out for the second edition of the “Usapang Plaridel” Campus Journalism Lecture Series” on Feb. 20 at the New Era High School in Tandang Sora Ave., Quezon City.
The event is being organized by the Association of Philippine Journalists-Samahang Plaridel Foundation, Inc., headed by president Evelyn Quiroz, to uphold the high standard of campus journalism.
Four veteran journalists, including this columnist, will share their knowledge on news and editorial writing, feature writing, sportswriting and radio-TV broadcating to more than 80 student-journalists.
Joining me in the whole-day lecture series are Diego Cagahastian of the Manila Bulletin, Nestor Cuartero of the Manila Bulletin/The Market Monitor and Sherrie Ann Torres, formerly of ABS CBN, TV 5 and GMA 7.
The lecture series actually started at the E. Rodriguez Jr. High School in Mayon Ave., Quezon City last Jan. 30 with close to 100 particpants.
For comments and suggestions, email to lito_cinco@yahoo.com
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