A sporting chance through education

MANILA, Philippines—In the spot where the province of Cavite ends and neighboring Batangas begins, a field of dreams is taking shape. But unlike Kevin Costner’s cinematic dream that was waiting to be built, the Spirit Sports College (SSC) is all set to open its doors officially in August and beckon to young men and women who aspire to take the sports route to fame and fortune.

The SSC will be the first educational institution in the Philippines devoted to the training of future athletes and sportsmen, and those who want to be in the front or back office, handling the business outside the arena, pushing papers and juggling numbers, mainly financial.

Even in the Asia-Pacific, the number of similar institutions is still too few to count with the fingers of one hand.

<strong>Serious business</strong>

A sports college may seem like a joke of an idea. After all, are not existing schools supposed to be doing the training of future athletes? And isn’t business of any sort part of the education one gets in any school of business administration or management?

Perhaps the easiest way to give people a sense of what a sports college is about is to compare it to culinary schools that have sprouted all over.

Just as culinary schools became popular because of the enormous employment and business opportunities available, it is also the significant growth of sports as an industry that drove couple Paul and Marie Moñozca, both trustees of the new school, to leave the comfort of Singapore and return home to indulge their pioneering spirit.

It was not totally a leap into murky and unknown waters for Paul. Having worked in the marketing department of the energy drink Gatorade (he wears a T-shirt that says, “Be like Mike,” an allusion to one of the world’s greatest athletes and a powerhouse endorser of the beverage, Michael Jordan) he knew the sports business well and its enormous possibilities and potentials.

Many Filipinos already know boxing is financially rewarding simply by following Manny Pacquiao win, bout after bout. But boxing is just a small slice of the huge multibillion-dollar sports pie.

<strong>Billion-dollar industry</strong>

The American accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates that in 2010, the value of the global sports industry was just a little below US$120 billion. This year it is expected to hit that amount and in 2012 rise to about US$125 billion.

And the market is not just growing but going global every day. The National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) are increasingly venturing outside their native United States to stage games in other continents. The United Kingdom may have introduced cricket and soccer to Commonwealth nations but it is seemingly no longer the hub for these sports.

Even more significant, and presenting enormous possibilities for Filipino athletes and a rationale for Paul’s grand enterprise, is the fact that sports teams have become multinational. The US-based NBA and Major League baseball teams have non-Americans on the court or the field, in the sidelines directing play, or in the business offices plotting marketing strategies. Asian, African and newly independent Eastern European countries are increasingly being represented in the biggest tennis and golf events and races of all kinds.

It is the changing face of the sports industry that Paul wants Filipinos to take advantage of, by getting the proper training and the skills they will need to be competitive and major contenders for the few and highly in demand slots in successful sports franchises.

Aside from the enormous possibilities in sports, Paul also wants SSC to be a model of what a school should be. He says it is not just quality teaching that the local education system lacks. “Even infrastructure-wise our schools suffer,” he says.

He adds that there is a growing trend towards specialization to take advantage of employment opportunities.

“Specialized training is needed,” he says, citing a Newsweek article on the rise of corporate colleges. “UBS created a wealth management institute (to) train private bankers specifically. McDonald’s has a hamburger university” while an energy company was training engineers for oil rigs, he says.

The SSC, Paul says, will “really be a breakthrough for Philippine education (as) a specialized school with the right infrastructure with the right people—the best minds.”

According to Paul, besides SSC, there are only three other sports schools in Asia-Pacific region—in Beijing, Singapore and Australia. “Here’s where we’re different from them: we provide education,” he says. “They only focus on performance training.”

<strong>Sports village</strong>

What the Moñozcas are developing in stages on what they promise will eventually be a 100-hectare complex is almost like an Olympic village, with venues for different sports and athletes quarters, except that, instead of competitions, there will be instruction.

The Philippine Sports Commission is helping SSC develop the various facilities. According to Paul, the agency said this was the first time they were collaborating in a project spearheaded by the private sector. “The PSC has been working double time in helping us design the sports facilities,” says Paul.

He says they came up with the idea for a sports school because current training in the Philippines “lacks quality” and Filipinos are not prepared for changes taking place in the global market.

“Filipinos are not (yet) going global in sports,” he says. Pacquiao may be making big bucks in boxing, a sport where Filipinos have traditionally won medals and earned championships but, Paul says, while they will be helping develop award-winning athletes,  the school’s focus will be education and employment. “For future employment, the money is in racing, golf, basketball, and soccer,” he says.

He is confident, with the right training and preparation, Filipinos could be good enough for the global arena, even in basketball.

Initiated through the Dr. A. B. Moñozca Foundation, a foundation set up in Singapore by his late father, Paul says SSC is a partnership with 70 percent Filipino funding and 30 percent from other sources. It is under the patronage of tycoon Jean Henri-Lhuillier and his company, Cebuana Lhuillier.

According to Paul, the complex will have indoor and outdoor facilities for basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, tennis, golf, swimming, among others. It will have its own golf course and a half-scale track for car racing, he adds.

Professional athletes and experts in the sports industry, from here and abroad, will compose the school’s faculty, he says.

Initially, SSC courses, divided into modules, are sports management diploma (two years plus one year practicum), industry certification (two months) and workshop programs (for different sports) three days.

Sports management, which costs US$5,800 a year, includes sports media, marketing, technology, science, engineering, retail and architecture.

The same fields are covered in the shorter industry certification program (US$1,500 per module).

The three-day workshops will cost US$400 each. For this school year, modules offered are golf, racing, basketball, soccer and boxing.

Paul wants Filipinos to make up 80 percent of the student population and expects that some 20 percent of enrollees will take the two-year course plus one year of apprenticeship. “Yes, we will send our students for apprenticeship in the US because we are also part owners of some US professional sports properties like the ABA,” he adds.

Initially, SSC is preparing for some 500 students. But Paul says they can expand to accommodate 300 more students.

Again in partnership with the Dr. A. B. Moñozca Foundation, SSC offers different types of scholarships and financial assistance to deserving applicants.

Aside from classrooms and sports venues, the SSC complex also includes faculty housing, a 100-bed sports medicine facility and the country’s biggest sports library.

A 125-seat video conferencing facility will allow speakers from different countries to address classes. The whole campus will also have wi-fi access, according to Paul.

Greenhouses are intrinsic parts of the training regimen, as students will be taught to eat right. The kitchen will prepare dishes using freshly picked vegetables from the greenhouses.

Paul says the theme of the complex will be Philippine sports in the 1950s and all roads and lanes within the complex will be named after well-known Filipino athletes.

<em>Visit www.spiritsportsuniversity.com. Admissions hotlines are 0939-3334369 (Smart) and 0927-2787658 (Globe).</em>