In times of change, we of­ten look to con­stants for com­fort and guid­ance. For T&T, foot­ball has long been one of those con­stants—a bind­ing force that brings us to­geth­er, gives us pur­pose and al­lows us to dream.

But in our cur­rent land­scape, where foot­ball it­self is un­der­go­ing trans­for­ma­tion, we are re­mind­ed that it’s not just the game that de­fines us; it’s the peo­ple, the pas­sion, and the un­yield­ing hope that we car­ry for­ward. The same can be said of oth­er things such as crick­et, ath­let­ics and I guess Car­ni­val, more­so the arts and cul­ture in T&T.

So many icons, past and present em­bod­ied this hope. Their lega­cy in­spires us now, as we face new chal­lenges and ris­ing ex­pec­ta­tions, to ap­proach each step with the same un­break­able spir­it.

Bertille St Clair, one of our icon­ic fig­ures, in­stilled in count­less young play­ers the un­der­stand­ing that foot­ball is more than a game—it’s a path to self-dis­cov­ery, growth, and uni­ty. His ap­proach wasn’t about chas­ing ac­co­lades alone; it was about teach­ing play­ers the val­ue of hard work, re­spect, and re­silience. The list of those along this path goes on with the likes of Gal­ly Cum­mings, Alvin Corneal, Edgar Vi­dale, and in more re­cent times Stephen Hart, An­gus Eve, Derek King, Stern John, the emerg­ing Den­sill Theobald, among oth­ers, too many to be list­ed.

From No­vem­ber 2024 on­wards, an­oth­er son of the soil Dwight Yorke will now con­tin­ue this jour­ney, spear­head­ing this dri­ve to­wards some­thing greater we all hope.

As we en­ter a pe­ri­od where there’s a re­newed fo­cus on youth and na­tion­wide de­vel­op­ment and com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven pro­grammes, Bertille’s lega­cy re­minds us that suc­cess isn’t mea­sured sole­ly by wins and loss­es. It’s about de­vel­op­ing char­ac­ter, fos­ter­ing pride, and en­sur­ing every play­er who steps on­to the field feels a part of some­thing larg­er than them­selves.

Now, with per­sons like TTFA Pres­i­dent Kieron Ed­wards at the helm, we see a new era of ex­pec­ta­tion and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty un­fold­ing. Kieron’s vi­sion along with oth­er key per­son­nel at the TTFA and in lo­cal sport, for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Pre­mier Foot­ball League and his com­mit­ment to over­all foot­ball de­vel­op­ment, un­der­score a broad­er mis­sion—to not on­ly re­vive our foot­ball cul­ture but to up­lift it to new heights.

Ini­tia­tives, like the FI­FA and Con­ca­caf Grass­roots and Gen­er­a­tion Amaz­ing Pro­grams, fo­cus on bring­ing foot­ball in­to the lives of young peo­ple, nur­tur­ing their tal­ents, and build­ing an in­clu­sive foun­da­tion for the fu­ture. The TTFA's ap­proach speaks to a re­newed ded­i­ca­tion, a will­ing­ness to take on the hard work of re­struc­tur­ing and re­build­ing, and a com­mit­ment to go­ing the dis­tance to make a re­al im­pact.

This jour­ney we’re on—reestab­lish­ing our leagues, re­vamp­ing our na­tion­al teams, and push­ing for greater in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion—is one that re­quires not just be­lief but ac­tion. It’s easy to talk about change, but bring­ing it to life de­mands courage, re­silience, and the stead­fast de­ter­mi­na­tion to meet every chal­lenge with hope.

Each of us, whether a play­er, coach, of­fi­cial, or sup­port­er, has a role to play in car­ry­ing this hope for­ward. We are all, in a sense, re­spon­si­ble for the fu­ture of T&T, for liv­ing up to the ex­pec­ta­tions we set for our­selves and for be­ing the cat­a­lysts of the pos­i­tive change we en­vi­sion.

Our he­roes on the field, icons like the Strike Squad of 1989, the greats of the 60s, 70s and the 2006 World Cup era taught us that great things come to those who are will­ing to work tire­less­ly and be­lieve whole­heart­ed­ly. They achieved great­ness be­cause they ap­proached each game, each mo­ment, with the high­est lev­el of ded­i­ca­tion.

To­day, as young play­ers look to their ex­am­ple, we are re­mind­ed that ful­fill­ing our po­ten­tial re­quires com­mit­ment—not just for a sin­gle match or sea­son, but for the long haul. Go­ing the dis­tance means giv­ing it our all, con­sis­tent­ly, with a fo­cus on con­tin­u­ous im­prove­ment and a re­fusal to set­tle for any­thing less than ex­cel­lence.

As we move for­ward in this jour­ney, we do so with a pro­found sense of hope—a hope that is re­newed with each new ini­tia­tive, each play­er step­ping on­to the field for the first time, and each fan cheer­ing from the stands. The path may not al­ways be easy, and there will be chal­lenges along the way, but with hope as our guid­ing light, we are ca­pa­ble of achiev­ing great­ness.

This is a call to all of us—to ap­proach every en­deav­our, every chal­lenge, with a com­mit­ment to giv­ing our best. To rise to the ex­pec­ta­tions we set for our­selves and to stand to­geth­er in uni­ty, know­ing that our col­lec­tive ef­forts are build­ing some­thing mean­ing­ful and last­ing.

T&T foot­ball is more than just a pur­suit of some wins; it’s a tes­ta­ment to our re­silience, our uni­ty, and our un­wa­ver­ing be­lief in the pow­er of sport to bring about pos­i­tive change.

To every young dream­er, and to each and every one of us who holds foot­ball close to our hearts, let us go the dis­tance to­geth­er, em­brac­ing change, fu­eled by re­newed ex­pec­ta­tions, and dri­ven by the shared hope that T&T foot­ball will con­tin­ue to in­spire and unite us all.

Lis­ten, chal­lenges, dis­trac­tions, and de­trac­tors are in­evitable; they come with the ter­ri­to­ry. But these ob­sta­cles are just part of the jour­ney. It's our re­sponse to them—how we stay com­mit­ted, adapt, and press for­ward—that will set us apart. Push­ing be­yond these lim­its is what will de­fine our suc­cess. What will be cru­cial is our re­ac­tion to these mo­ments. Our abil­i­ty to re­main stead­fast, fo­cused, and de­ter­mined to ex­ceed ex­pec­ta­tions will ul­ti­mate­ly make the dif­fer­ence.

Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Me­dia. He was a FI­FA Me­dia Of­fi­cer at the 2010 FI­FA World Cup in South Africa and 2013 FI­FA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. He has trav­eled to 88 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­gan­i­sa­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com