By Juan Carlos Gutierrez

I just learned today through Mrs. Santos that Mico Protacio will not be able to play for HEdCen in the Iloilo games. When I met Mrs. Protacio in the afternoon, she told me they couldn’t come because of certain family matters. Kurt de Leon also backed out.

In the absence of Mico, Jodi or Ackie will most likely start as left defender. The only substitutes of team 98 are Kaze and Marky.

For team 96, the defenders will be Jason Layug and Miguel Almazan. Alen Adeva will start as the team’s keeper. Skie and Rvin will be the forwards. The reserves will be Justin Cabangon, Angelo Frejas, and Luigi Fernandez who has come back home to HEdCen with his brother Eric from Marist. There is a chance that Tim Blas will join the team. I talked to Mrs. Blas this morning during PCTC regarding his possible appearance in Iloilo.

Skie’s ankle is fine and will resume training on Monday.

HEdCen 95 forwards will be James and John. The defenders will be Vinz and Miggy Santos-Tankia. Nat-Nat will be the goal-keeper. Unfortunately, there are no other 95 players. Unless some 96 players join the 95 team, HEdCen 95 will have no substitute. This issue will be discussed with all the kids tomorrow.

James and John already look good after 3 days of training. They practiced early this morning with Rvin Resuma and the outreach team: Albert, Anglo, Bryan, Kevin, Coach Ronnel, and Coach Robin.

Most of the players and their families will leave on the 17th (Tuesday). Some will be travelling via Cebu Pacific, Phil Airlines. Others will ride the boat. The Resumas will leave on the 18th.

Binggirl (Skie’s mom) informed me that the 11-a-side tune-up game will be on the 19th. On the 20th, there will be another game in Sta. Barbara.

5-a-side tournaments will be on the 21st and 22nd of April.

Marsha and other players that will be staying in Manila requested Coach Sugar to train them while the other coaches (Bernard, Ruffy, and Juaqui) are in Iloilo. Their wish was granted and so all morning participants may train the whole week next week during the Iloilo trip under Coach Sugar’s supervision.

I am very excited about next week’s happenings. I anticipate a lot of fun but I guess it would also be wise to have a briefing with the kids and even the parents about our stay in the province and a few reminders to avoid any untoward incident.

There is a possibility that Coach Sugar will be a guest in Sports Talk on April 28. He will be interviewed and make an appearance in Channel 22 and DZMM. The topic of discussion will be about HEdCen football. Mrs. Rigon is making the arrangements for this.

By Juan Carlos Gutierrez

Today is a very important day in the history of HEdCen Football development. Based on what I observed in practice this morning, I would consider this day to be a turning point in the way football will be played in HEdCen. Our teams will compete with more confidence, organization, and teamwork. And it’s all about the system of attacking and defending which all teams 98 and up are adapting.

We did the usual passing and trapping drills, then heading and shooting. After that, the older kids jogged for about 20 minutes in the big field. That was the start of their endurance training. It was a jog that I believe was good for all the participants except Skie who twisted his ankle during the exercise. It didn’t look serious and I hope it’ll heal in a few days.

Our trip to Barotac is on Tuesday. I do have some concerns regarding our preparations for the games. One of course is Skie’s ankle. I can’t be too sure it will be ready on time so I told him to come to training tomorrow so we could observe his injury and decide if he could still practice.

Another concern is the stamina of the Condat brothers who just trained this morning. They seemed very tired towards the end of the 10-minute game earlier. I am confident though that given a few more days of practice, they will be fit for the 5-a-side games. Fortunately, their teammates, Miggy Santos-Tankia and Vinz Epino are showing good signs of mental and physical preparedness for the coming tournament. What worries me most is whether the twins will be in shape to play the left and right wing of the 11-a-side practice game against the Born 95-96 Barotac team. I plan to use the 4-4-2 formation but it will require them to run like hell so I am considering the 4-3-3 formation with the twins as forwards and Miguel Almazan as striker. I discussed the matter with Coach Bernard but I guess it would be best to consult the players as well.

I am confident that HEdCen will be sending very strong teams to Barotac. At first, I was doubtful about the defense of our 98 team. Raja was confused the past 2 days on his role to support the forwards in offense and the transition from offense to defense. This morning, he played like he understood our game plan very well. Raja blasted the goal from half-court several times in the scrimmage from back passes and loose balls. He was quick to switch to defensive mode upon his team’s loss of ball possession. What impressed me most was his attitude that no one was going through him without a beating. Hehe. The left defender would probably be Jodi or Mico. Mico has a very strong kick but he needs to work on his transition game. Jodi can play beside Alain and replace Jamy if more muscle is needed in front. Alain has a solid kick that will score goals and he is already learning to slow down the ball when needed and make better decisions on offense.

The most important thing that we need to work on tomorrow would be the 98’s defense. They will be playing boys born 1997 in Iloilo. That is the category they are joining. If it is decided that Ackie plays with them, then their defense will be stronger. I will test their defense against the 96 team and we will work on areas which we could improve on.

Today, I also witnessed Marsha and Louise’s ability to pass. I always criticized Marsha that she could not pass the ball. She was used to individual powerplay in front. It is a fact that other teams will adjust to her and improve their defending and eventually stop her. They did just that this year. Our girls 93 ended up 3rd place. We can’t afford to send teams that rely on one person to win games for them. It is in this case that the other players are being developed including Marsha’s passing skills. Marsha will be playing in the 92 division but her offensive support will be Louise and Mary Rose. They may be young but i believe that their skills will be superior to the other schools. Even Woodrose will be surprised. I just hope that these girls will make a conscious effort to work as a team on offense and improve their passing.

I am also happy that the defenders of the girls teams are training consistently and putting a lot of effort upgrading their defensive skills. They are still adjusting to their roles as back support to the forwards but I am confident they will learn this in a few weeks.

In the afternoon session, Moira and Inigo played exceptionally well. Moira, born 1999, showed she could strike the ball hard, pass, and dribble well. In the scrimmages, she applied the outside and inside turns to get past her opponents and even used the step-over fake at one time.

Inigo Cuervo was absolutely brilliant. He is a striker who is simply goal-hungry and will do everything to score. His team with Ronnel and Gio Ciro was the youngest but they beat all other teams.

Hopefully, there will be more sparks of brilliance in tomorrow’s practice. We will have very few drills and lots of games.

By Juan Carlos Gutierrez

I am very happy that a lot of children attended this morning’s training. Most of the kids even came at exactly 6AM. I was 10 minutes late so I told the kids to warm-up before I put on my soccer gear.

When we started the passing drills yesterday, it was evident that a lot of players lacked technique and confidence in passing. I was a little worried about this but then I thought at least we have all summer to improve our trapping and passing skills.

This morning, we did the same passing drills. The players had already improved after just one day of training. It was quite a relief as I thought that we could get most, if not all of the students, to play fast-paced football with precision passing before the major tournaments. The same drills shall be done for a period of 2 weeks with little variation. I believe this will be an efficient way of getting the kids to master a certain skill.

Everybody played in the small field after the drills. I overheard some of the older kids hoping they would not play 7-a-side today. “Sana sa small field lang tayo ngayon,” said one highschool student. Since there were about 30 players present today, everybody had to wait patiently for his turn to play 5-a-side. But because we had scrimmage since 7:30 til 9AM, All the kids had a fair amount of playing time.

All the practice games will be held on the small field until Monday due to the ongoing construction of the big field to level the ground and raise the walls of the school beside it. Hopefully, we will be able to use the big field when we get back from Iloilo. Its width is the same as the length of the small field which means the big field could further be divided into 2 when we focus more on individual skills in practice. The availability of walls beside the field will allow the players to enhance their kicking. The school is optimistic that the upgrade made on our football facilities will improve the overall performance of the HEdCen teams by at least 100%.

Manchester United beat Roma 7-1 in the second leg and qualify for the semis of the champions league on 8-3 aggregate.

Chelsea beat Valencia 2-1 and qualify for the semis as well on 3-2 aggregate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBd_NnvnxU8&mode=related&search=

By Juan Carlos Gutierrez

For the past week, I kept telling myself I should’ve extended training til Wednesday. I thought that a lot of kids probably just slept all day and were just dying to go out or even play football.

Maybe I could plan the training schedule better and consult with the other coaches and the school service drivers about their holiday plans next summer. Anyhow, I am excited for tomorrow. We will get back to work.

The focus for tomorrow’s training will be passing and trapping. We will resume doing drills on dribbling and faking next month. I was able to make the entire training program for April to June. I thought that maybe I should complete the plan up to August or September, then I decided that it would be better to observe first the progress of the HEdCen players this summer before deciding on future drills.

I am really excited about the football of HEdCen this academic year. The school will have a lot to look forward to regarding the performance of its football teams. There are a lot of plans on the improvement of our facilities and training program. One major focus this year is to make football practice more interesting and challenging.

1. Training will resume on April 10, Tuesday
2. Morning training will start at 6AM (please read previous note on the change of training starting time)
3. There will be training on Wednesday, April 11, for the morning group only
4. NonHEdCen students will practice from April 30 to June 1
5. Use sunblock (for morning group only)
6. Wear your shin guards and long socks
7. Fitting for training shirts on April 10
8. Work on your football skills during the break
9. Bring milk to drink (all students) or else…

We will try to end summer football training at 9AM because beyond that time is just too hot. We understand that it may be difficult for some students to come to HEdCen at 6AM. Students may come at 7AM but will miss shooting drills which we will have early in the morning. All highschool students must come at 6AM for strength and endurance training. If you have any concerns please text or call me at 09165439236/ 6583489.
Thank you.