Musangs� training continues

Wake up between 5 to 6, eat a little something, and practice between 6 to 8 a.m. Breakfast is at 8, after which they do their studies from 9 to noon. Then rest until 4 p.m., practice between 4 to 6, have dinner between 6 to 7, and then sleep by 9:30 p.m.



That is the daily routine for the Philippine Musangs, the national Under-19 football team that is now training in a special football camp in Bago City, Negros Occidental. On Wednesdays and weekends, they play friendly matches, and take off for a day off on Saturday afternoons to Sunday.



Opened in July this year, the camp is under Negros Occidental Football Association president and former congressman Carlos Cojuangco, who is program director, and Maor Rozen, who is the Musangs� coach. Some 20 players, chosen from try-outs in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, are training in the camp. They were selected from over 600 players who joined the try-outs.



It is a humble effort at putting together a national team, Cojuangco said, when oftentimes, our teams are put together two to three weeks before a competition.



Rozen said other countries may have three to four years lead time, but �we are here to compete, to do the best we can.�



The camp offers everything they need. For their training, the players have field work where they put to practice strategies. They go to the badminton court for strength and power exercise sessions and then to the swimming pool for recovery. Friendly matches are held either in the field here or at the Pana-ad pitch in Bacolod.



They live in a dormitory with study and mess halls, and work on a special tutorial program that allows them to keep in step with the classmates they left behind in their respective schools. Rozen is in the camp most of the time and a headmaster who ensures schedules are kept and in-house rules followed live there.



Cojuangco said whatever else happens later, the time spent in this camp ensures, at the very least, that �They�ll be better players when they leave.�



�They�ll be more mature,� he said, adding that the boys are treated as adults even if some of them act like children sometimes. For one, Cojuangco also said, �we are bringing them into the process, so they understand things.�



Interestingly, the players come not just from different places, but also from different social backgrounds � from exclusive schools to public schools, two are out-of-school now; from urban centers to hinterlands; two of them come from abroad.



Wasn�t this a problem? Rozen smiled: Football is round, in the end, everybody is the same.*



Source : Visayan Daily Star