Philippine Volcanoes to participate in Hong Kong Sevens!

i seriously couldn’t be any prouder than i am now.

i’ve seen it first hand, heard it from the players themselves about what it takes to represent your country. it takes a lot of hard work and sacrifices. it wasn’t an easy ride where you constantly aim to go to the top and ultimately to reach the goal of putting the Philippines in the Rugby map and gaining respect from all other Rugby playing nations in Asia then eventually the world…

in every game, the team battle and bleed to give glory & pride to our country.. and now all the hard work, sacrifices, dedication, perseverance, and passion they’ve put in — the team, the coaches, and all the staff has now finally paid off.. We’ve got an invite to compete in one of the most prestigious Rugby tournament in Asia, well perhaps in the whole world, the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens.

It was the Philippine Volcanoes silver medal winning performance in in the Borneo 7s that earned their spot in Hong Kong 7s. We’ve finally proven that the Philippines is a formidable team in the Rugby arena, a team to watch out for in the next couple of years.

Its way beyond “awesome” to be playing against top teams worldwide — New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, and England. its the next best thing to Rugby World Cup, seeing our own play with these formidable teams from around the world and i can definitely say its a dream come true for everyone – the team, PRFU, and the fans and supporters as well. but i always knew, seeing the team, looking at how dedicated they are with the sport, that unfailing love of their Pinoy heritage and their country, i always knew they had it in them, the ability to take the Philippines to the top! 🙂

let me take this opportunity to say congratulations to Philippine Volcanoes and to PRFU as well. You did a great job and look at where we are now. 🙂 just keep it up and we’ll definitely go a long way and i won’t be surprised if we’d be able to go and compete in the next Rugby world cup! And i bid you good luck as well. its time to shine your brightest in HK Sevens 2012! again, best of luck! keep in mind that all of your supporters will just be here, rallying with you guys towards winning!

Go Volcanoes!

RESPECT. DISCIPLINE.  PINOY PRIDE.

mondays will always be for Rugby!

January 28, 2012 marks the start of Philippine Rugby Football Union 10’s League (PRFU 10’s) and I haven’t made up my mind yet if i’m gunna play on saturday or what coz i honestly feel that i’m still a work in progress when it comes to playing rugby. been playing the sport for about 3 months now. I started mid August last year but due to club commitments in soccer, i wasn’t really able to focus on rugby. I went back to playing it right after my birthday in September but was forced to sit on the sidelines last October till end of the year due to injury. In one of the training sesh in Rugby, I pulled my calf muscle really really bad that i had to rest it for a while.

I came back first thing this year and to really be honest with everyone, haven’t gained top form for playing yet. I’m way too far from it actually! hence, i’m still undecided with playing this coming saturday. but i’m doin’ everything i can to shape up and to step up for it. i haven’t missed any training sessions this year and on off training days, i sweat it out in the gym, doin’ mostly cardio & some weights to convert all my fats to muscle mass and also to develop agility & endurance. Rugby training is every Mondays and Wednesdays but since it’s Chinese New Year yesterday and its a holiday, no training sesh was scheduled.

and since me and some of my Rugby teammates were used to training during mondays, we scheduled a little training of our own yesterday morning at the field near Bahay ng Alumni in UP Diliman. We shared the field with UP Softball team (good thing they’re gracious enough to let us use the field with them!).

we started around 8am with warm up, jogging, and some stretching. then passing drills followed. simple “hands” first — just passing the ball from player to player, no fancy passing at all. then we did the “chooky”!!! really hilarious coz we’ve got no sense of direction at all and i really am an epic fail with switching & passing. why am i so bad with directions? haha! then some defense-offense drills and line throw outs then touch rugby after. its more of a “learning” sesh coz this time, we can actually learn and grasp everything. the chill & relax environment while doing the drills makes it a more conducive rugby sesh where you can learn as much as you can, you can ask around without feeling shy or awkward. its nothing like the rugby trainings we’ve had previously (where you can literally drop dead because it was intense)  but we’ve definitely learned a lot from it. 🙂

i’ve got to say a huge THANKS to my friend Junnel. yesterday’s sesh was her idea and it was really really fun! its a breath of fresh air actually coz for the first time, we felt chill & relax while training & because of that we learned a lot from it. sometimes its helpful when during training, your back is not against the wall so to speak. you can think clearly and do the drills easily coz nobody’s giving pressure and nobody’s shouting at you all the time. 🙂

so before we called it a day yesterday, we managed to get this photo:

aren’t we all cute here!? hehehe.. good job everyone for a successful private rugby sesh yesterday! and got to say that because of you, my dream to be a referee came true! hahahaha!! =)))))))) true story: they appointed me to be the ref for the touch rugby yesterday! and i think i aced it! =)))))

hopefully we can squeeze in one private rugby sesh every week! its really fun!

till the next sesh and keep on movin’ your feet guys! 🙂

what you give is what you get…

“Immortals, take your space over there.. Tarsiers you have your space here.. Bisons, go over there and Vipers, you can go here…” He looked at those directly staring at him, the crowd in the middle, all giddy and ready to toughen it up for another intense rugby training and he said “Ahhhmmm, you girls.. you go.. wherever…” And yes he said the word “wherever” with the hand gestures that goes well with how he views women. well in this case, women who plays rugby.

Now off to the next circuit and we hear ” Girls, girls please… DON’T TACKLE IT LIKE A GIRL!” and by this time I really had enough of this gender bias crap. its bad enough that we get all this whispers & stares on the field while training and all this crappy comments from the men’s team like “Babae kasi, kaya ang hina (She’s a girl, that’s why she’s feeble & weak)” and now we get it from the coach??

I mean seriously… We train doubly hard than anybody else on every damn Rugby training. We get ourselves kicked, tackled, battered and all bruised up on that damn field. We give more than 100% of our effort, dedication, and perseverance on every effin’ training just to prove to everyone that we are not “just girls” and push overs. Just like you, we battle and bleed on every effin’ Rugby game we get in and yet we get little or no respect at all.

As I’m writing this, I really can’t put into words how disappointed and disgusted I am with that kind of treatment. Why? Are you scared to teach us coz we might turn out better than you guys? If you can’t respect each and every girl in that damn field, well at least give some respect to the Philippine Lady Volcanoes training with us. They’re athletes same as their male counterparts. They battle and bleed to represent the country and it’s really disrespectful (to say the least) to just sush them like that, shoo them away and say “go to wherever.”

How could I ever respect a coach who’s like that? How can I respect someone who obviously don’t know the true meaning of the latter word? I don’t respect people who doesn’t respect other people, especially women. You know why? Coz for me RESPECT IS EARNED AND NOT IMPOSED. you want respect, you give respect. Its as simple as that. I don’t know how your parents brought you up but in my family, we give high regards to respect. Everybody’s brought up to show proper treatment and respect to all kinds of people we interact with regardless of race, gender, religion, or status in life.

Dude, really… Try to learn as much as you can about the foreign country your living in. Mind your words and actions. It might be acceptable to you but offensive to the people around you. Now if you really are blinded with so much gender bias that your brain  ended up not functioning properly at all and you really can’t respect us as women, please do respect us as individuals, as people who like you and like everybody else, deserves fair treatment and equality…

Live up to the creed, man.. Live up to the creed…

RESPECT. DISCIPLINE. PINOY PRIDE.

i’m sure as hell that you’re not Pinoy but please, it will do you good if you learn to respect people. until you learn that, i will never (as in ever) call you “Coach.”

Oh and lemme put a big fat emphasis on the first word of the creed which is ironically… RESPECT.