Pinoy youth gets coveted sports award

Pinoy youth gets coveted sports award

Arcel John Siosan (middle) at the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games

Pat Lechelt True Sport Award by Canada Games Council

By Michelle Chermaine Ramos
LJI Reporter
The Philippine Reporter

A young Filipino-Canadian became one of the first two athletes to be awarded the first ever Pat Lechelt True Sport Award by the Canada Games Council at the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games in August, 2022.

Arcel John Siosan is a 21-year-old recreation management student in his fourth year at Dalhousie University in Halifax. His family hails from barangay Miranda in Negros Occidental and his mother was the first to move to Canada in the Yukon in 2009 with the help of their relatives who had already settled there. Arcel and the rest of his family joined her in 2011 so that he and his siblings would have a better life and opportunities.

The middle child of three, Arcel was only 10, his sister was 7, and older brother was 13 when they immigrated. Looking back on the experience of getting settled in Canada, Arcel said that while adjusting to a new culture, environment and new friends took some time, it taught him to become adaptive to new experiences.

He got involved in sports at school and at clubs to continue playing table tennis before focusing on volleyball. He joined Subzero Club when he was in 7th Grade and eventually started representing Team Yukon from 2014 to 2022 playing both table tennis and volleyball.

The real test of his endurance came in 2015 when his father became partially paralyzed from a stroke and was unable to work. Arcel and his siblings had to work jobs to help their mother and to save for university. Nevertheless, he ended up earning a Sir Graham Day scholarship in March. Instead of using all the funds to pay for his tuition, he decided to donate a portion of it to his community in the Philippines by preparing care packages for those in need. I spoke with this wonderful youth role model and he shared some of his thoughts on training and advice for other young Filipinos.

THE PHILIPPINE REPORTER: What were the most challenging parts of your training?

ARCEL JOHN SIOSAN: The commitment and being one hundred percent in what you do can be tough. You need to be disciplined if you want to be a better athlete.

TPR: Speaking of discipline, were there any specific major challenges or obstacles you had to overcome over the years to commit one hundred percent to your sport?

AJS: I played volleyball for my university the past three years in Dalhousie University. So in those three years, I sacrificed a lot of my time and life to volleyball. But I’m not playing anymore. Evolving away from it and wanting to do other things.

TPR: Are you leaving the sport completely or just competitions? What’s next?

AJS: It was a personal decision to evolve away from volleyball. I’m focusing more on my career now and how I can impact people’s lives in the future like spending time in charity or doing personal charity work to help those in need.

TPR: Reflecting on what you’ve learned in your life so far, what advice would you like to share with other youth?

AJS: For the youth, I would say to work hard because it does pay in ways where we sometimes don’t imagine. To also not be afraid of trying new things because exposing ourselves in different situations can help us identify ourselves.