Meet Coach Rio Dela Cruz
Making Ends Meet
When Rio entered Quirino High School in Project 3, Quezon City, his family ironically transferred to Paranaque. This meant he had to endure yet another challenge: waking up at 4am to get to school by 6am then proceed to run training right after school at Marikina Sports Center by 2pm. And as if that wasn’t enough, his Chuck Taylors were already worn out by this time so he again resorted to running barefoot. A kind soul, most likely upon seeing hissordid plight, gave him his first pair of spike shoes. But because he already understood the importance of road running, he decided to make-shift road shoes by removing the spikes and replacing them with “alpombra,” the thick soles from his cheap sandals that were quite the poor man’s fashion in those days. For weight training, he filled up drums of water for taking a shower and for washing their laundry. By the time he was done with his total-body-workout-slash-household-chores, it’s already 9 or 10 in the evening and completely spent. And he does this day in and day out for the next couple of years.
Oh… and He’s Smart Too!
Believe it or not, Coach Rio wasn’t just your typical high school jock who could care less about his academic performance. Things started looking up for him during his second year, when he found himself in the honor’s class and he got reconciled with his estranged mother. With his mom living in Pasig, which was relatively closer to his school, it seemed that moving in with her was the practical thing to do. But yet again, the winds did not blow in his favor, as he ended up living in the slums, with his own mother making him sleep in the bodega and waking him up at 1 in the morning to put away vegetable deliveries from Baguio. When he finally gave up, realizing that hard training and lack of sleep do not mix, his high school coach was kind enough to take him into his own home. Although his living conditions didn’t change much and he still had nothing in his pocket, at least he was able to fill his empty stomach with canned sardines and he could wake up at a more decent hour of 5am. His training grounds also became more accessible to him and he could run to the Quezon Memorial Circle, and his coach even gave him some money for his allowance.
