MACO, Davao de Oro (MindaNews / 2 July)—For sepak takraw players like 20-year-old Ranan Jireh Cutaran, a game outside Davao de Oro remains a dream.
The Maco Sepak Takraw Team practicing on Monday (2 July 2024). MindaNews photo by YAS D. OCAMPO
MindaNews spotted a group of six players playing 3-on-3 sepak takraw inside a small multipurpose court within the Maco Municipal Complex in Davao de Oro on Monday.
“We’ve had a lot of invitations to go to places like Bukidnon and Kapalong. But we couldn’t go because we don’t have a vehicle to transport the entire team,” Cutaran said in Cebuano after playing a match of the intensely acrobatic ball sport.
The small team is part of a 13-man contingent that is still figuring out how to organize themselves to play the sport professionally.
So far, the group has played in relatively nearby leagues but want to expand their stats to win games with teams outside Davao de Oro.
“We’ve played Pantukan, Nabunturan, Maragusan, Kinuban,” Cutaran said.
Leagues, or Liga games, usually earn winning teams as much as P5,000, and most games have no entry fees.
The player said they could only play matches as far as their motorcycles can take them.
Absent an organized formal team, it was hard to look for sponsors for a team such as this.
Sponsorship means shoes, jerseys, practice balls, and a coach, maybe a kickstart to the bigger leagues, too.
“At school, we have a coach. The coach teaches us only when there’s a school event. But at tournaments, we have to teach ourselves. If we need one, a coach, we just look for someone who’s available,” Cutaran said.
“We can seldom join faraway tournaments. We want to play in bigger tournaments, but they’re really far,” he said.
More importantly, sponsorships can mean a way for them to get to matches.
“That’s what’s so difficult for us, transportation,” Cutaran said.
Membership for the Maco Sepak Takraw Team comprises mostly junior high school students.
“Our players are mostly Grade 7 students. We also have elementary players, as young as Grade 5. There are some players who want to learn from us. We teach them, too,” Cutaran said.
The Maco Sepak Takraw Team practicing on Monday (2 July 2024). MindaNews photo by YAS D. OCAMPO
He said they want to register their team as a formal club. “We’re not a registered club yet. We want to know how to do that,” he added.
The team has had the support of their alumni who have already graduated high school and are now in college.
For the uninitiated, sepak takraw is a highly intense volley sport.
Like volleyball, players take turns trying to score points using a ball made of rattan instead of rubber.
Like football (or soccer), players may only use their legs and head.
And like martial arts such as kenpo and muay thai, sepak takraw requires significant core strength to send the rattan ball over a net or to prevent it from entering a team’s sector.
Players regularly execute mid-air cartwheels combined with graceful kicks to block or spike.
All things considered, Cutaran and his friends say they prefer playing sepak takraw over more popular games like basketball.
“In basketball, there’s too much contact and you end up hurting other players,” 17-year-old Jeger Flores tells MindaNews.
In sepak, “if you get injured, that’s your own doing,” he added. (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews)