By Dr. Dennis Acop
Joji was already a champion archer even before I met her in 1981. I never knew about her archery prowess until we dated in 1983. It was so funny because she asked me if I ever saw her in the papers and I would reply in the negative. I really didn’t or so I thought. Maybe I did but I was either too young to notice or my focus was on other sports items in the papers. But Joji was really already famous in the Philippines when I met her in New York. I didn’t think too much of it at the time but Joji did miss her archery while in the states. She had every right to as she was still in her prime. In fact, she had not peaked yet at that time. She missed archery that she joined national archery matches one of which was held in Ohio. She was in the top 20.
Joji went to New York to work as a registered nurse after graduating from UP in 1980. But while still a college student, she already became a sports champion as member of the University of the Philippines Archery Varsity Team. Her dad Arte Guerrero was her coach and among her teammates were her siblings: Marinella, Margarita, Arturo, and Artemio. Mother Priscilla assisted their dad as coach. All siblings did pretty well as archers but older sibling Jocelyn or ‘Joji’ was the most accomplished. Joji won four gold and three bronze archery medals in the 1977 Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur. As the most bemedalled athlete of the tourney, Joji carried the Philippine flag off the plane of the Philippine delegation upon arrival in Manila. She and her teammates also competed in the 1977 World Archery Championships in Canberra where she placed 19th overall. As well as in the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok and the 1979 Southeast Games in Jakarta. Joji was a three-time recurve national champion. Recurve was the old traditional form before the onset of artificial stabilizers.
When Joji came back home to Manila in 1983, she reunited with her former UP team and resumed competing. In preparation for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she and her teammates competed in a friendly meet with China in Manila. She and teammate Fermin Barrenechea reached the qualifying score of 1200 to make it to the Philippine Olympic team. Unfortunately, the country failed to field an archery team to the Olympics and Joji missed her chance to become an Olympian. Every athlete dreams of making it to the Olympics. Joji certainly did. And she did qualify. She should have been an Olympian, easily. I felt bad for her then. I still feel bad about it now. But in my heart, my then future wife was already an Olympian. She proved it in every conceivable measure. Especially in her heart. She will always be my champion