MindanaoToday.com | Spirit of Go-For-Goal ’96 champs guides CVRFA-DBTC lads to top
By: Jack Biantan
CAGAYAN De Oro City — Central Visayas Region Football Association (CVRFA) Don Bosco Technical College (DBTC) swept the PFF U19 Div.1 Group B competition when the Bosconians downed the Panay Football Association (PFA) Tamasack FC of Barotac Nuevo Iloilo, 2-0, in their last match Saturday night at the Dynamic Herb/Borromeo stadium in Talisay City, Cebu.
The victory put the Bosconians to the round of four in this annual competition organized by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) under new president John Gutierrez to find young talents for the Philippine National Men’s Football Team.
The top two teams in Group B will play the top two teams in Group A in the semis on June 7, with the winners playing the championship on June 10 and losers clashing for the third place.
So, it will be CVRFA-DBTC playing Far Eastern University-National Capital Region in the semis and then Negros Occidental Regional FA vs Panay FA in the other semis match.
CVRFA-DBTC topped Group B of the Div. 1, with three wins. Aside from the Cebuano’s 2-0 win over PFA-Tamasak Barotac Nuevo, they also won over Camiguin Misamis Oriental Region Football Association (CMORFA)-Higala FC 5-1 and Zamboanga del Norte Dipolog Regional Football Association (ZANDIRFA), 6-1. Panay FA was the other team which made it to the round of four finishing second to CVRFA with two wins and one loss slate.
It was a sweet victory for the Bosconians from Cebu City who were beefed up by guest players from three other Cebu based schools, University of Southern Philippines-Foundation, Don Bosco Boys Home-Liloan and University of San Carlos.
But what is much sweeter is that the tournament was a reunion of the three members of the Cebu team which won the national title in the National Coke Go-For-Goal U16 championship at the Rizal Memorial stadium in Manila in 1996.
Back then the Cebu team, represented by Salazar Institute of Technology-Don Bosco Boys Home in Banilad, Cebu City won the only title for a Cebu team in the prestigious annual youth football competition defeating West Negros College of Bacolod City in a penalty shootout during the championship.
Now legendary Cebu coach Glenn Ramos, mentored the team whose core of players were from SIT-DBBH and were beefed-up by players from Abellana National School, and Don Bosco Technology High School (DBTC). Actually, coach Glen was already a young coach for DBTC which lost to SIT-DBBH also via penalty shootout during the Cebu elimination.
SIT-DBBH coach Bro. Mari Aberasturi had to step aside for Ramos who then appointed Abellana National School coach Francis Ramirez as his assistant. Aberasturi was later appointed as one of the assistants of Ramos when he was named National team coach to an international tournament in HongKong during that year.
Two members of that champion squad, striker Rocky Garciano, and winger Archival Commendador are now part of the coaching staff of the DBTC team which topped Group B in the U19 Div. 1 competition.
Commendador was a shifty wingman for the 1996 team who provided the crosses for the strikers like Rocky Garciano. Both of them became teammates in every competitions representing Cebu or Central Visayas Region during that time. During college at the Southwestern University, Commendador and Garciano were once again teammates and Glen Ramos was their coach.
After college, Garciano was recruited by the Philippine Army where he played for many years until he came back to Cebu and tried his luck in coaching. Two years ago he was named as head coach of the University of the Philippines-Cebu Women’s Futsal team. When his contract with UP ended last month he signed up to be one of the coaches of DBTC under coach Glenn.
After college, Commendador worked in the construction business and tried football officiating and became a licensed referee. However, few years ago coach Glen asked him to be one of their coaches in DBTC. He could not refuse his old mentor and now he is one of his trusted lieutenants.
At DBTC, their magic on the pitch has continued working. But coach Glenn, who is now in his late 50’s remains humble. He always attributes his success to his players, parents of the players, his sponsors and specially to the undying support of the DBTC administration.
His DBTC players included in the line-up are Joseph Kane Garces, Mark Anthony Talingting, Lindsey Cueva, John Benedick Calzada, John Lester Conde, Kurt Justine Barro, Edgar Paredes III, Nathan Khail Lingatong, Ariel Estiola, Jorross Clark Tabar, Joaquin Nacion, Cesar Robert Danaanoy, Glendale Bontuyan, Razi Gabrielle Baguio, Rayne Amora, Nolasco Tan, Renzo Enriquez, Alezandro Ledesma, Carsten Pumareia, and Allister Manlosa.
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