DFA coach as national mentor: Davao's loss, country's gain
by Romy Sabaldan
Davao City (25 July) -- The Davao Football Association (DFA) does not mind losing one of its best and qualified coaches if it will redound to the good of the development of football in the country as a whole.
This was the gist of the statement of one of the Davao FAs football official soon after coach Albert Ryan Lim, known by his peers as "Coach Abing", had accepted the assignment offered to him by the country's long-time head coach and trainer of the national team himself Sr. Juan Cutillas, who is now back in harness as part of the new leadership team of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF).
But DFA's patriotic bow for the whole country's good carries with it some expressions of alarm as one of Mindanao's winningest FAs had already lost not one but two of its most experienced coaches.
First their was coach Christian Ea, football mentor and training coach of the DFA boys under twelve years old and suddenly Manila had to snatch back "Coach Abing" to their fold to help prime up the Under 19 (U-19) women's national team for future international engagements.
Coach Ea, who was unable to organize Ateneo de Davao's football coaching staff as head coach, tried his luck in the big city and had recently been taken in by the La Salle high school team in Alabang.
De La Salle is the same NCR football team that had previously taken the services of coach Lim prior to his return to coaching football in Davao.
Cresencio Manuel "Buboy" Arrieta, one of the 12-member DFA board of directors, yesterday expressed alarm over the recent two-man exodus of football coaches from Davao saying that this situation does not augur well for Davao which is now beginning to assert its place as one of the powerhouse football FAs in the country.
"Coach Abing's acceptance of the official appointment from PFF president Jose Mari Martinez has left us with only one B-licensed coach in Davao in the person of Coach David Peņano", Arrieta said in an interview with PIA XI Wednesday.
Arrieta said unlike other ball games, football or FIFA, the international governing body of the world-famous game, for that matter has very strict standards of accrediting coaches for international games.
They are a rare breed of football mentors, he added saying that in the whole country for example, there are only a total of 15 B-licensed football coaches and two of them are from Davao, Peņano included having recently taken his B-licensed coaching credentials from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in Malaysia. (PIA XI) [top]
