TEMPORARY LOGO OF THE GROUP
WHAT started as a private coaching tutorial for a Mindanaoan coach has already become the biggest online platform for football coaches all over the country.
Former Philippine Football Federation (PFF) grassroots in-charge Ake Pastoral of Laguna never thought that his efforts to spread the gospel of the beautiful game on-line has now become a phenomenon that has attracted more than 250 football coaches from all over the country.
Pastoral, an AFC A license coach started teaching online a new coach from Butuan, Reynold ‘Noy’ Tana.
He was recommended by another Butuan coach Bonifacio ‘Bombet’ Avenido, last Sept. 2, 2020.
Bombet who is an AFC C License coach, according to Pastoral, then suggested that what if they will invite other coaches to attend the sessions for free so that many will be benefited not only one.
“So Bombet suggested a name, Futbol Mentoring 101, and then we created a Zoom account and invited other coaches to the forum,’’ he said.
He added that when they invited other coaches, within one hour the members increased to 50, then 100 in two hours and then 250 in a day.
“Unfortunately Zoom allows only 250 persons. We then created a Facebook account to accommodate more coaches who have not registered to our Zoom account,’’ Pastoral said.
The Futbol Mentoring 101 has been a great help to coach Noy Tana who is an Evangelical Christian Missionary to Pakistan.
He is learning how to coach football from scratch and he plans to spread the Gospel of Christ in his mission at Rawalpindi Province of the Cricket mad Muslim country of Pakistan.
Noy is only one of the many beneficiaries of this forum as Filipino football coaches from all over the world have also listened to discussions about the beautiful game in this time when football is not yet allowed to be played by our kids in our country.
Ake Pastoral himself an AFC A license coach have preached about the Laws of the Game, criteria on how to be a coach, football mentoring and the coaching process.
Pastoral has also invited Japanese PFF consultant Regie Hirata to talk about his TAD program, and Negros Occidental coach John Carmona who also taught about coaching Philosophy.
Coach Bombet also showed his football program for the children of Butuan which has been supported by the local government and should be followed by every municipality and cities all over the country.
Laos FC coach Ronald Patulin has also presented his programs in Valenzuela city and how the Laos FC started.
Many times the discussions lasted for more than four hours as many coaches were very interested in learning from senior coaches.
Among those noted speaker was current Palarong Pambansa football competitions manager Rufino Arellano. He discussed his struggles with the Palaro and his accomplishments and the plans.
It could be noted that there have been many changes for the better in the Boys Secondary football, Boys Elementary football and Girls Secondary futsal since Arellano has been in charge.
Another noted guest during the forum was the coach from Iloilo Domingo Subo. Coach ‘Doming’ has won many Palaro titles, representing the town of Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo. He also produced many Barotac Nuevo players like Yanti Bersales and Chiefy Caligdong to name two.
Coach ‘Doming’ discussed his trials and success as a coach and how he formed his champion teams from the intramural level, to become Palaro champions.
Claret School coach Bob Salvacion and long time PFF official Ramon ‘Chito’ Manuel were also invited to discuss the origins of Rizal Football Association (RIFA). Rifa is a yout football group which has priduced many national team players.
Aside from learning discussions, the group has also been talking about forming a coaches association whose main aim is to protect the coaches and uplift their careers.
Key members of this group like Pastoral, Patulin and Hans Smit will be talking to an existing coaches forum mostly composed of lady coaches from Manila to merge with this group and form a stronger association that could serve the coaches who would then continue to spread the gospel of the beautiful game all over the country.
Among the coaches who are regular in the forum are Irish Almeda, Ronald Patulin, Hans Smit, Abing Lim, Joel Villarino, John Punzalan, John Bayarong, Hubert Magrata, Ike Olandesca, Nino Lazo, Arvin Soliman, Jesm Mascarino, Jasper Yap, Noel Marciada, Melchor Anzures, Alex Adolfo, Bombet Avenido, John Carmona, John Vergara, Tats from Davao, Floyd Crisologo, Eleazar Toledo, Ricky Enolva, Jun Amor, Jerome dela Pena, Reynold Tana, Sam Sarip and Lelet Dimzon.
Futbol Mentoring 101 is on every Mondays, Tuseday and Saturdays starting at 630 a.m. via Zoom. (l.biantan@gmail.com)
