“Paying it Forward” at UP, Part II, Football for Education Project

The sem starts with these future leaders of PHL arriving in flipflops, bicycle shorts, walking shorts, and girls in very very short shorts. One summer, may fresco pang naka puruntong. Haay, UP.

To graduate, they have to earn 6 units of CWATS they call it. I announce to them that while they do not have to march under the hot sun and wear uniforms, they have to come on TIME and wear corporate attire.

By the time I get to this point, they all hate me already. Corporate attire, I explain is because our alumni in the private sector complain that UP applicants come to interviews in ratty T shirts & insist on speaking Taglish. (Reverse arrogance ng mga taga – UP daw, sabi ng Alumni). So on first impression, they lose out to the well dressed “Ingleseros” from Ateneo & La Salle, daw.

So they're all sulking. The semester does not start auspiciously.

As intro to the Boystown and the projects undertaken please see the Manila Bulletin article.

So Joao Pajaro my nephew and a much admired varsity football player in his tune organized them into a football team. A major objective was to get some good players football scholarships in public and private universities after high school. One girl made it to UP varsity and is graduating this year.

We hoped that the football would also teach them teamwork & discipline. Joao called me from a tournament one time to yell “P- - - - - i - - Tats, nagtampo ang goalie natin and walked off the field.”. We had to remind ourselves that these kids have no family with whom to learn teamwork and cooperation; to teach them these was one of the Project's objectives.

For the boys, the tournaments also offered an excursion to the world outside Boystown that they so looked forward to.

We had to bribe the boys with snacks to get them to even come to the field. Photo shows the first recruits. Fun to chase dragonflies on Saturdays nga naman.

So the students raised funds to level the playing field, had their ancient power mower repaired, installed goals, bought balls. Joao asked some UP coaches to train the players on Saturday & Sunday.

A Boystown team was ready to play in tournaments playing against large well-fed boys from Ateneo & La Salle. Please see photos.

I attended most of these tournaments cheering for Boystown and earning the “tampo” of my two apos, playing varsity, one for Ateneo, the other for La Salle.

They won very few games but for one “brief shining moment” (Camelot) they with their undernourished bodies and in their department store bought jerseys and not Adidas nor Nike nor Puma cleats were the equals of the privileged boys from the exclusive schools.

Next time, Repairing the Cottages at Boystown.