Open letter to my son

MY 13-year-old son, Justin Miguel S. Liao, is about to complete the first year of his high-school studies at Philadelphia High School.

Here below is the “open’’ letter I sent to him recently.

Son,

Friday March 4, 2016 marks the first anniversary of your love affair with the sport of basketball. It was the first time you set foot on a hardwood for an official training session at Philadelphia High School.

At 12 years and nine months, I did not have any inkling that you could play the game, let alone be successful in athletics. Three years before, I brought you to Xavier School to play basketball and it would appear that you did not have the skills to make it far as you found it hard even to dribble the rock properly.

But time has a way to move mountains. Your four-times-a-week training in summer under the great teachers of the game at PHS helped you discover the hidden skills that you possess.

The coaching staff taught you how to dribble, score, defend and play the team game – the fundamentals that a cage athlete needs to develop to succeed.

Your blinding speed, endurance and athleticism were what you brought to the table. Amazing it was only because I myself did not know you have them in you. Eventually, it was your passion for the game that convinced me that an athletic career could be in the cards.

And when you, as a high school frosh, snared a bronze medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase event of a prestigious athletics tournament in January this year, I was more than convinced that speed was your No. 1 asset.

You probably were born to run. The running man-child, if I may so.

Be that as it may, there was a stringent condition that I had imposed on you in June, 2015 or at the start of the school calendar: No failing grades in exchange for your continuous stay on the school team. That was – and will always be – non-negotiable. Education still is the primary reason why you are in school.

Nearly 10 months later, you have kept your part of the bargain – and more. In the first quarter of the school year, you ranked eighth in your Grade 7 class. In the second quarter, you placed seventh and, in the third, you moved up to sixth.

The fourth-quarter exams are forthcoming and I am confident that you would pass them with flying colors and rank highly overall in your Grade 7 class.

You have proved to me that academics and athletics do mix well. It’s only a matter of time management. Now another season of summer training is about to unfold. Have fun and enjoy it as you have always done before.

Young dude, reach for the stars. Nothing is impossible.

—Dad