● Feature · Bohol Coconuts Baseball & Softball Club
The Parents Are the Real Audience
Before a single player steps onto the infield, the Bohol Coconuts must first win the trust of mothers and fathers who are weighing sacrifice against promise.
When a new sports club launches in a rural Philippine community, the most important pitch is rarely made on a field. It happens at a kitchen table, during a quiet moment after dinner, when a parent leans across to another and asks: is this worth it?
That is the conversation the Bohol Coconuts Baseball and Softball Club must reach. Not through posters or social media posts aimed at teenagers, but through a sustained, honest case made directly to the people who hold the real decision-making authority in Filipino family life: the parents.
The club, set to launch operations in late June 2026 and connected to Barangay Cambanac in Bohol, is building a marketing strategy that treats parental trust as its foundational challenge and its greatest opportunity.
“We are not just asking for a child’s time. We are asking a family to believe in something new, and that means we have to show up for the parents first.”Lerma Moore, General Manager, Bohol Coconuts Baseball & Softball Club & Barangay Cambanac Kagawad
General Manager Lerma Moore, who also serves as a Kagawad of Barangay Cambanac, understands the terrain. In communities where children contribute meaningfully to household income, agricultural work, or younger sibling care, every hour spent at a baseball field is an hour pulled from something else.
The Bohol Coconuts are acutely aware of this. Their strategy does not pretend the sacrifice is small. It argues, instead, that the return is large.
✨ Understanding the Household
What Parents Are Actually Weighing
In many Bohol households, a teenager’s participation in any extracurricular program is a family-level calculation. Lost labor hours have real consequences. Transportation costs money. Uniforms and equipment cost money. Uncertainty costs worry.
The Coconuts have identified the specific fears they must address. Not minimize. Not dismiss. But genuinely meet with answers.
⚠ What parents are worried about
Time away from chores, farmwork, fishing, or caring for younger siblings
Hidden costs: gear, travel, uniforms, and tournament fees
Whether athletic involvement will distract from schoolwork and academic performance
Safety and supervision, particularly for younger players and girls in the program
Whether the club will last, and whether investing belief is worth the risk of disappointment
These are not unreasonable concerns. They are the rational calculations of people operating with limited resources and genuine responsibility. A marketing strategy that does not engage these fears honestly will fail at the family table, no matter how compelling it looks on a screen.
🛡 The Coconuts’ Response
Building the Case, Piece by Piece
The club’s approach centers on four commitments that must be communicated clearly, repeatedly, and through the right messengers. A flyer does not carry this weight. A trusted neighbor, a barangay official, or a parent who has already seen the program firsthand can.
Transparency on Costs
The club will publish a clear, honest breakdown of what participation requires, and what it does not. No surprise fees.
Academic Partnership
Scheduling will respect school calendars, and the club intends to treat academic standing as a condition of participation.
Parent Inclusion
Parents are welcome to be present. They are being invited in, not asked to drop children off and disappear.
Long-Term Vision
The club is communicating its permanent commitment to the community. This is not a temporary program. It is a lasting institution.
“If a mother does not feel welcomed and informed, she will not send her son or daughter. That is the reality. We have to earn her confidence, not assume it.”Lerma Moore, General Manager, Bohol Coconuts Baseball & Softball Club & Barangay Cambanac Kagawad
📣 Channels and Messengers
Who Carries the Message Matters as Much as the Message
In Philippine barangay life, trust flows through relationships. The most effective marketing the Bohol Coconuts can do is not a social media campaign. It is a Kagawad speaking at a purok meeting. It is a respected lolo in the barangay vouching for the club’s intentions. It is a parent who attended an early information session telling their neighbor what they heard.
Moore’s dual role as General Manager and Barangay Kagawad is not incidental to this strategy. It is central to it. Her standing in the community gives the club a credibility that no advertising budget can purchase.
The club plans to hold structured parent information sessions before the launch, designed not as promotional events but as open conversations. Questions are not just allowed. They are the whole point.
💡 The Longer Argument
What the Club Is Really Offering
Beyond the immediate concerns, the Bohol Coconuts are making a longer-term argument to parents: that organized sport, structured mentorship, and the discipline of athletics produce outcomes that matter far beyond the diamond.
But the Coconuts are not going to lead with research papers at a barangay meeting. They are going to lead with stories, specifics, and faces. The people behind the program and what they stand for.
The club is also pointing toward something that resonates deeply in this region: the possibility that baseball, virtually unknown in most of Bohol, could open doors that other paths do not. Collegiate programs, national development pipelines, and the growing infrastructure of Philippine baseball represent real opportunities for talented young players willing to commit to the sport.
“We want parents to see not just what baseball is, but what it can become for their child. That is a conversation worth having. It takes time to have it right.”Lerma Moore, General Manager, Bohol Coconuts Baseball & Softball Club & Barangay Cambanac Kagawad
The Bohol Coconuts are clear-eyed about the challenge. Winning over parents in a community where every resource is spoken for will require patience, consistency, and genuine follow-through.
Promises made at information sessions must be promises kept when the program begins.
This is, ultimately, a trust project as much as a sports project. And trust, in any community, is earned slowly and lost quickly.
The club is betting it can earn it. The parents of Barangay Cambanac and the surrounding communities of Bohol will be the judges of that.
