EDGE Davao

by Moses Billacura

Berlie Decasa was a very proud mother on January 28 when her 10-year-old son, John Bryan Decasa Otico, was presented to the Davao Sportswriters Association members at the Tower Inn.
She took a lot of camera shots of John Bryan who brought with him three gold, one silver and three bronze medals he won in the Milo-Malaysia Junior Tennis Cup from November 24 to December 14 last year.
John Bryan is a grade 4 pupil of Maramag Central Elementary School who started playing tennis at the age of eaight. U.S. Tennis Association coach Alex Bernan took him under his care and honed his skills during training camps in Davao City and after a tie-up with the Children’s Tennis Workshop of Jovy Mamawal and Milo-The Olympic Energy Drink, John Bryan became a much better player.
He won a gold and a silver in the Genting-Selangor International Junior Open Tennis Championship and bagged two golds in the 26th Penang Open International Juniors, a bronze in the Tuanku Syed Putra International and two bronzes more in the Langkawi International.
Growee Multi-vitamins officials learned of this good news and they will also be backing John Bryan.
He is certainly a wonder kid.
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The 3rd Kapuso Amateur Boxing Tournament is set for March 15 and 16 at the City Hall Drive. It will become part of the yearly Araw ng Dabaw Sports Festival.
ABAP-Davao president and Davao City councilor Edgar Ibuyan is planning to invite outstanding amateur boxers from the Davao provinces to trade punches with Davao City pugs in preparation for bigger competitions.
GMA TV 5 Davao’s Mariles Gamboa-Puentevella is optimistic that they can get more backers of the tournament in order to offer attractive prizes to the fighters.
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Radio Mindanao Network’s dxDC has been a constant supporter of amateur cycling development hereabouts. From local circuits, station manager Mario Maximo Solis decided to go Mindanao-wide with the holding of the Race for Peace Circuits.
That’s another wonderful development.
GMA Kapuso Davao’s support, I hope, will continue in the years to come. Thanks Mariles.
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The Dancesport Council of the Philippines-Davao Chapter is hosting SEA Games gold medalist and the country’s No.1 dancesport teacher Belinda Adora on February 6 to 7.
Adora will be in Davao for a seminar-workshop at the Elysee’s Restaurant in Lanang (in front of Suzuki Auto Davao) to teach talented athletes and teachers new techniques of the sport and to update thm on the latest competition guidelines implemented by the International Dancesport Federation.
Davao’s training director Denise L. Bunayog and chapter president Jeannette S. Ortiz have been making the rounds of Davao City to seek sponsors for the two-day event. Davao Sports Council Inc. president and Davao City councilor Peter Lavina has joined the list of backers by sponsoring a pair from the Daniel Aguinaldo National High School who could not afford to pay the workshop fee.
Don’t worry Denise, as long as would-be sponsors see that you are not raising funds for your own pocket, you will get a lot of sponsors.
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This is the case of the organizers of the 5th Davao City Baseball Cup.
For the fifth straight year, elementary and high school teams in Davao City look forward to a competitive tournament after months of training.
The Tokyo Kichijoji Lions Club and the Datu Uchida Development Foundation officials teamed up with the help of sponsors in order to keep the tournament going on.
Despite the hard times, Davao-born Tatsuo Uchida, whose love for Davao just cannot be measured with words, rallied his friends from the Tokyo Kichijoji Lions Club to share in the tournament.
Otosan, as everyone calls him (meaning “Tatay”), was born in Tibungco, lived along  Magallanes St. here and helped in running his father’s abaca business in Calinan. But at the age of 19, he went to Japan, that’s after World War II.
But he could not forget the land of his birth. He said that those who forget their homeland are not human. I was quite astonished by his statement during the DSA Forum because he feels more like a Dabawenyo, a Filipino. I suspect that those 19 years, he lived in Davao, were the most wonderful years of his life.
His father’s remains are in Davao and in his ripe age now, in the presence of his grandson Yusuke, world champion baseball coach Hidetoshi Suzuki and Foundation officer-in-charge Ines P. Mallari, Otosan bared that he intends to be buried beside his father in Davao when the time comes that his eyes shall have closed for the last time and forever.
Otosan’s statements drew applause from the other guests, and there followed a long moment of silence. I guess, many of those present will remember what he said for a long, long time.
The Datu Bago awardee cannot bear the thought that the well-loved sport of baseball which has brought many Davao kids together will die a natural death. But I fear that should Otosan eventually pass away many years from now, Davao baseball  would probably die along with him.  Unless Dabawenyos who have come to love the sport carry on where he has left.
This is what the Davao City Baseball Association must work on now, to keep the tournament going on for the kids. I am confident that with their honesty and credibility, moneyed company executives will trust that their funds will not go to waste if they will contribute to the development of amateur baseball in Davao.
But, I tell you, this early fellow-Dabawenyos, if you help baseball now, you won’t regret it.
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Nitten Company, Kazuma Sports, Yakult Philippines, Probiotics, Inc., Frezcon Air Conditioning and General Services, Stanfilco-Dole Philippines, Inc., Tadakuma Japanese Restaurant, Crystal Clear Water, Margaja-Mascardo Dental Clinic, Engineer Arnold Sarabia, Anita Sarabia and Ma. Eva “Babang” Mendez have made contributions to the 5th Davao City Baseball Cup which is supported also by coach Hidetoshi Suzuki, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte and the Department of Education (DepEd)-Davao City.
I hope we will have a growing list of supporters and make Ma’am Ines smile even more.
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Happy birthday to Ciara Carreon Mellejor who turned 20 last January 29.
I attended the birthday bash at Via Café along Mt.Apo Street with my wife, Marjorie, who was simply impressed by the beautiful paintings displayed there by Bina Balchand, Gerard Anton Aquino, Baerbel Roth and Egay Carreon, who is bound for Germany for another exhibit.
I have “commissioned” Egay to do the paintings of the soon-to-be-built house of my wife and Egay, Ayan Mellejor’s manoy, readily agreed.