History of the STCAA: the Athletic Association’s Humble Roots and Batangas’ Early Participation

In the present day, each year a competition is held to select teams and athletes who will represent Region IV-A in the national games called Palarong Pambansa. These teams and athletes come from the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, otherwise known collectively as the CALABARZON.

Prior to 2002¹, the Region IV was much larger and included the island provinces of what is now known as MIMAROPA, made up of the provinces of Oriental and Occidental Mindoro; Marinduque; Romblon; and Palawan. Aurora was also still part of the region. Then, the annual meet was called the Southern Tagalog Regional Athletic Association or the STRAA.

Both associations trace their roots to a much humbler meet organized early during the American colonial era, the Southern Tagalog Athletic Association (STAA). The association was formed in 1910 by the provinces of Bataan, Rizal, Tayabas, Cavite and Batangas. The first-ever meet was held the in March of the following year in the town of Sta. Cruz in Laguna. There were just two events: baseball, won by Cavite; and athletics, won by Laguna. Batangas and Bataan did not participate².

Interest in sports shot up when teachers themselves started participating. In Batangas, in particular, teachers were first introduced to the game while training in normal schools – schools for teacher training.

In his narrative published as part of the 1903 Report of the Philippine Commission, M.A. Molton, Superintendent of the Division of Batangas, Cavite and Tayabas noted that “young men played baseball” after training, and that the games were used to enhance use of the English language. He also noted that “baseball was a good way to interest the children in school⁴.”

Although Batangas did not participate in the first-ever STAA, its teams were active elsewhere. For instance, in 1906-1907, a team from Batangas High School participated in and won a baseball series involving the Philippine School of Arts & Trade, Liceo and Tarlac High School⁶.

The source document does not make it clear exactly when Batangas started to participate in the STAA, but the province hosted the meet in January of 1913. Its team won the baseball competition, with Laguna being triumphant in athletics⁷.

A word about basketball, which all readers know would eventually become the most popular spectator and participative sport in the Philippines. It was, in fact, introduced to the country much later than baseball, and “except in the Visayas it has received little attention from the boys⁸.”

In fact, just so more students would pick up basketball as a sport, the Bureau of Education as an incentive offered a basketball outfit (likely equipment and facility) to “the school in each division winning the greatest number of games in a provincial baseball series⁹.” By 1913, Batangas fielded a basketball team in the so-called “carnival meets,” athletic competitions held between towns and provinces during carnival seasons in different towns and cities.