By Hali Moore
Coconuts Staff Writer
Inside Cambanac Barangay Hall, Councilor Lerma Moore spreads blueprints across a worn wooden table. But these aren’t infrastructure plans or budget reports. They’re diagrams for batting cages, soup kitchen menus, and practice schedules—her lifeline to a future where Cambanac’s youth step into the spotlight.
Though the Bohol Coconuts Baseball & Softball Club’s permanent field remains unbuilt, Lerma’s resolve is unshakable. Her vision is already alive in the rhythm of this barangay: in the echo of sneakers at the Covered Basketball Court and the legacy of a father who believed she’d rewrite her own story.
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Lerma’s journey to this moment winds through every landmark of home. Raised in Cambanac but transplanted to Manila at six, she spent summers in Bohol as a teen.
“He’d buy me puto from the same vendors at the market,” she says of her late father, Orly, her voice softening. He always said, “Lerma, you’ll do what you never dreamed possible.”
After studying at Arellano University in Manila, she married Coach Merv in 1998 and settled in Caloocan City. However, the couple – now with two kids – returned to Cambanac in 2008—trading city life for ancestral roots.
Now in her second term as councilor, she sees the community’s struggles up close: families choosing between school supplies and rice, teens with idle afternoons, and dreams deferred by geography.
Where Dreams Take Root
With no diamond yet, Lerma turns existing spaces into launchpads. At the Cambanac
Covered Basketball Court—where her son SJ once practiced jump shots—she envisions pop-up softball clinics.
“This court taught SJ discipline,” she says, watching teenagers scrimmage under the midday sun. “Now, it’ll be where we teach our first T-ball drills until we secure land. Sports aren’t about where you start; they’re about where you’re going.”
“People ask where we’ll play,” Lerma laughs, tapping the blueprints. “We’ll use every space we have: the court for agility drills and empty lots for fielding practice.”
Coach Merv, who retired from coaching at 32 to get married and start a family, is back in Texas and will not return until late January or early February.
“My husband is busy with meetings and preparing to relocate to Bohol full-time,” Lerma said. “He has waited his whole life to get the chance to develop future minor league baseball prospects.”
On February 1st, the Coconuts’ will celebrate their Grand Opening in Cambanac. It will be a day when her late father’ words have new meaning.
“I never dreamed this was possible when my husband asked me if I wanted to help him build a baseball club that was unique. But, my dad was right!”
The Family Playbook
The Coconuts are a Moore family mission. Coach Merv, who shifted from courtside to kitchen tables when SJ and Hali were young, now channels his decades of coaching into raw talent.
“Merv knows that Filipino kids can compete with Japanese kids,” Lerma insists. “He’ll develop minor league prospects from these barangays—just wait and see!”
Lerma’s councilor role has also enabled her to listen to the feedback of local residents. She understands the hardships of her friends and neighbors.
“Parents want a better future for their kids, period,” Lerma said. “Our goal is to provide young people will several pathways to pursue their dreams.”
The First Pitch
As February 1st nears, Lerma walks from the Barangay Hall to the Covered Court—a pilgrimage through her past and her purpose. There’s no outfield fence yet, no bleachers—but there’s a fire.
“We start with what we have,” she says, sunlight catching the Coconuts’ logo on her shirt. “A soup pot, a dusty court, and a belief that Cambanac’s greatest export won’t be coconuts—it’ll be elite teenage baseball prospects.”
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Her father’s words echo in every step: You’ll do what you never imagined. For Lerma, that means a future where a child’s address doesn’t dictate their destiny. Where hunger never benches ambition. And where, very soon, the crack of a bat will join the sounds of home.
