Sep 09 2008
Football Off-Season
There is no such thing as football season in the Philippines. In the Philippines, Football is off-season the whole year round. It’s off-season because football as I have mentioned earlier in my previous post is not as popular as basketball. Basketball is the best thing in the Philippines or perhaps the second best thing after Jollibee. That is why if most young American boys dream to become a football or baseball player when they grow up, most young Filipino boys grew up dreaming and hoping to be either a Basketball or a Movie star… but not a football star.
The Filipinos have different kinds of sports and pastimes that they enjoy. And having a different culture they also have some unique kinds of games that they play. One of them is SIPA which literal meaning is “kick” is the national and traditional native sport of the country. Though Sipa is the national sport of the Philippines not all Filipinos are familiar with the sport. And though it is played professionally the regional sports tournament among Asian countries under Sepak Takraw for the Asian Games, it is not popular enough to be included in the list of sports in the Olympics. However, Sipa and SepakTakraw is gaining popularity abroad now and has reached foreign soil like the Canada.
Sipa like football also uses a special kind of ball made of rattan. And like football, the ball is kicked or played using the foot. But unlike football, there are lots of variations on how to play the game. But like any other sports, both Sipa and Football are sports that can make any young boys dream of becoming big time stars.
[To view more photos and videos of Sipa click here and for Sepak Takraw click here.]
For more Information about SIPA:
Go to… Sports in the Philippines
Go to… The Art of the Matter
Go to… A Century of Challenge and Change:The Filipino American Story
i have not played sipa, but i know, it takes patience to play soccer, hihihi, the one we call football in the philippines. i love to play baseball though, when i was younger, that was my favorite sport. but of course, basketball is the most popular, was a Lakers fan when in the 70s and 80s, then, became Chicago Bulls fan, and now, since I am here in SoCal, am back to being Lakers fan. For local teams, Go Toyota, hahahaha, but after Toyota, I think I didn’t have a team anymore, oh, maybe, San Miguel, with Samboy Lim.
Oh, I love to play “kick”, my teacher in high school used to get angry with me for I didn’t know how to stop when I was still kicking, hihihi.