The men's and women's teams taking time off for a group picture after the small group at the U-Belt center
Esmael Camaring (right), one of the top taekwondo jinn prospects of FEU this season during his skirmish with a UE opponent in the preliminaries
It’s encouraging to see how far God has brought the Far Eastern University women’s taekwondo team this year after the conclusion of the 2009 UAAP Taekwondo championships on last September held at the UST gymnasium.
After a runner up finish last season, the FEU women’s team fought valiantly against the league’s powerhouse lady jinns coming from the University Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines and even De La Salle University.
Though they had to go through the “proverbial eye of the needle” against these strong teams, they managed to pull the UAAP championship trophy back to the FEU campus.
Veronica Domingo, a long-time national taekwondo jinn, who now heads the men’s and women’s taekwondo program of FEU, was thankful that her players’ physical preparation was complemented by the weekly small group meeting.
This, she said, helped her athletes focus more on growing in their faith, rather than just the physical preparation.
“I have no problems with the players’ skills, but what this (women’s team) needs really is the spiritual preparation, someone who will guide them through so they’ll know God more,” Domingo shared prior to the team’s seeing action in the UAAP taekwondo tournament last September.
The men’s team, meantime, gave everything it got against the best of the best in the UAAP, but a critical loss to Santo Tomas, the reigning UAAP men’s champion, proved fatal. The FEU men’s eventually wound up fourth place in the tournament.
Even though the championship eluded the men’s team again for the second straight season, rookie Esmael Camaring, a former RP wushu team mainstay, told me the timing of our Thursday small group meeting because it has helped him as well as his teammates refocus their attention on God not just enjoy the accolades and fame from the sport.
Esmael unfortunately broke his right leg during the semifinal round of the team event during his physical match against an Iranian athlete from the University of the East.
“Malaking pagsubok talaga ito para sa akin, pero di ko sinisisi si God. Alam ko may dahilan ang Diyos sa pag ka-injure ko. (This is really a big test for me but I don’t blame God for what happened. I know God has a purpose for this.)” said Esmael.
Last night, parents of some of the taekwondo players threw a thanksgiving party for the FEU coaching staff and even for Victory (ENCM), which sponsored the team building seminar for the men’s and women’s squads last August.
I’m very thankful for the FEU’s past and present small group leaders, who help me handle and connect with the men’s and women’s players the past two months.
Eunice, Julienne and Clarize, along with Venjil, Al and Anthony have been a big blessing to these players because they prayed and related with these players during the good and tough times.