After a rousing first stop in Subic last month, the season’s most exciting summer sport goes to the finest resorts in Boracay and Davao.
I am talking about the 2011 Kicksand Beach Football Series, a baby of the Beach Football Association of the Philippines (BFAP) whose President Mike Athab I consider a brother.
Mike rang up this week to say he’s personally going to Boracay to set up the venue and other logistical requirements of the event which comes as the final summer spectacle in the country’s summer beach capital. Kicksand will be staged after the Hala Bola PBA All-Star Week which also goes to the island this month.
The Boracay leg will be hosted by Bamboo Resort Hotel whose owner Jonar Villanueva, now the President of Kiwanis Club of Boracay, has personally attended to the preparations of the event through his manager Jimmy Escotin.
For the Boracay leg, Visayas squads will be crowding for the men’s and women’s titles but some teams who took part in Subic are among those knocking on the door to conquer Boracay. According to Mike, some of the squads in Subic are asking for the details of the Boracay and Davao events and will most likely join the next two legs of the tournament.
The teams in the Subic joust were interestingly composed of some of the finest football players of the land. I am pretty sure that Visayas, with its rich football tradition, will also come up with their best squads in the Boracay leg. And when the tournament swings to Davao, expect fireworks at the beach of Bluejaz as the local teams will surely defend their turf where pride is at stake.
For the Davao leg, James Infiesto is coordinating with BFAP and marketing group F1 Event Solutions in the preparations. Mike is also set to visit Davao and take an ocular of the venue.
The Kicksand event is sure to boost sports tourism in Davao in the manner that sports tourism has been the formula that makes Boracay the most interesting place in the country to hold events. The event has enormous media values in virtually all media platforms as has been proven in the Subic event.
F1 Event Solutions made sure the Kicksand event will be staged in Davao for the first time. Years back though, beach football was introduced here during the time of my late mentor and Godfather Vic Sai. Mike remembered the two stagings of the event in the black sands of Times Beach and Bonguyan.
F1 was also responsible for hooking up with the Bamboo Resort Hotel Boracay for the second leg. All these, however, were made possible with the masterstroke of PSC Commissioner Chito Loyzaga who has backed up BFAP in its programs this year. PSC chairman Richie Garcia gave his worthy support to the BFAP program also through his senior executive assistant, Dabawenyo lawyer Guillermo Iroy, Jr.
We can only get excited from here on and by the time the sands blast in Bora and Davao.
