De­fence Force FC has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as the dom­i­nant force in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s foot­ball since its for­ma­tion in 1974. The Reg­i­ment/Coast Guard unit won sev­en straight league ti­tles from 1974 to 1978, to­day, they have 23 cham­pi­onships to brag about. The Army/coast­guard team has al­so cap­tured league and FA Cup dou­bles in ‘74, ‘81, ‘85, ‘89 and ‘96.

Af­ter a lengthy ab­sence from na­tion­al foot­ball com­pe­ti­tion, the gold and blue-clad foot­ball lega­cy re­mind­ed T&T just who they are with an­oth­er re­mark­able achieve­ment; win­ning the in­au­gur­al TT Pre­mier League Foot­ball League and Cup dou­ble.

Guardian Me­dia Sports se­nior Sports re­porter/pro­duc­er Jo­van Rav­el­lo, who vis­it­ed the team’s train­ing ses­sion at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Train­ing Ground on Wednes­day morn­ing, and spoke to cap­tain Ja­mali Gar­cia, and for­mer skip­per Cur­tis Gon­za­les, to­geth­er with mid­field­er Justin Sadoo and coach Lloyd An­drews about the suc­cess of the team so far for 2023.

Q: How does it feel to be the cham­pi­ons go­ing in­to the new sea­son of the TTPFLTi­er 1 League?

Ja­mali Gar­cia, Cap­tain De­fence Force FC: Well, it’s al­ways good to be a cham­pi­on go­ing in­to any tour­na­ment, but we know it will be a dif­fi­cult sea­son be­cause every­body al­ways wants to be the cham­pi­on. So we just have to pre­pare our­selves go­ing in­to this tour­na­ment so that we can come back out as cham­pi­ons once again.

You’re one of the lead­ers of this team. How have you been able to keep your team­mates fo­cused through­out the sea­son, and how do you keep them fo­cused on the task at hand?

Cur­tis Gon­za­les, Mid­field­er: Well, last sea­son my main fo­cus was to keep the young­sters to­geth­er and show them the right way. Make them have a per­fect at­ti­tude, and go out and play good foot­ball.

Now you’re smil­ing, and I know the team had a great sea­son in the Pre­mier League. Can you de­scribe it for me as a coach?

Lloyd An­drews: Well, it was nice to qual­i­fy for the Caribbean Club Cham­pi­onship. We had a long-term goal. We fell short but we ex­pect to achieve it in the com­ing years.

Justin Sadoo: It wasn’t an easy road but we grind through most games as all teams do in a ti­tle-win­ning sea­son. For me per­son­al­ly, it wasn’t the best of times, but we came out with a vic­to­ry, and that’s the most im­por­tant thing.

What were some of the chal­lenges that you had to over­come as a team to­wards achiev­ing your goal?

Sadoo: As you see in leagues on TV, the team that is sec­ond on the ta­ble most of the time like how we were, we al­ways knew, the fight and the grit that was need­ed as it came down to the last game.

How does it feel to lead such a sto­ried suc­cess­ful team?

Ja­mali: Well, it feels great be­cause com­ing in­to the sea­son, I wasn’t the skip­per of the team. It was a great re­spon­si­bil­i­ty on my shoul­ders and I had to ad­just to it and deal with the boys it was good be­cause they ac­cept­ed me as their cap­tain. It was just for me to con­tin­ue to lead them to glo­ry be­cause we all want­ed the same goal.

What were some of the key mo­ments for you in last sea­son?

Sadoo: There were many against Po­lice we came back to se­cure a draw in the 90th minute, like against La Hor­quet­ta Rangers we won 1-0, and most im­por­tant was the last game against AC which we won 2-1.

What was the mood like be­fore that fi­nal league game?

Gon­za­les: Well, dur­ing the train­ing ses­sions lead­ing up to the game, the most im­por­tant game is al­ways the next game. So we were just like boys, we need to come up with a vic­to­ry. It was like, let’s just put in the work on the train­ing park and leave the rest on the field, and every­thing was his­to­ry af­ter that.

Talk to me about that fi­nal night at­mos­phere.

Ja­mali: Well, I’m from Diego Mar­tin, so it was good for me to be home play­ing in front of peo­ple that I grew up among, peo­ple who knew me com­ing up. So it was good for me to see that every­body came out to sup­port us, and we were able to come out with the vic­to­ry.

You had a chance to do the tre­ble this sea­son. How do you feel about your team’s per­for­mance?

Gon­za­les: Well, in the Caribbean tour­na­ment it had games where we played up and down, but as you can see, it was a very young team. It was a learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence for the fu­ture, but when we get our ti­tle this year, and we go back to the Caribbean Cup, we’ll have a more ex­pe­ri­enced bunch of play­ers, and I’m sure, we’ll reach fur­ther.

How do you feel about next year and po­ten­tial­ly go­ing there again?

An­drews: Well, this was the first time for me as a coach in the Caribbean Club Cham­pi­onship. We thought we had it, and we gave it away by not con­vert­ing our chances, we are look­ing for­ward to putting these things to­geth­er and be­ing a cham­pi­onship team next sea­son.

Sadoo: The team grew from the Caribbean club ex­pe­ri­ence, and every­body was dis­ap­point­ed. So, I think that hurts every­body, I know. But I think we grew as a team.

Is there a par­tic­u­lar plan for this next sea­son or any­thing to im­prove on from last sea­son?

Gon­za­les: We need to work on be­ing more to­geth­er as a team, get­ting clos­er as a unit, and most im­por­tant­ly get­ting an­oth­er ti­tle.

What are your per­son­al goals?

Gar­cia: My per­son­al goal is to get back in­to the na­tion­al team and be­come a main­stay on that team.

Sadoo: Last sea­son, I had a few as­sists but not many goals. So, I think goals are what I want this sea­son. I’ve im­proved, and that can add more to our team.

An­drews: I have two great as­sis­tant coach­es, and a very, very ex­cel­lent an­cil­lary staff, the masseuses, the medics, etc. We all work to­geth­er as a team.

Do you see any­body else tak­ing you guys off your perch?

An­drews: Every­one is chal­leng­ing the De­fence Force, and every­body comes to play and win against us. So, we’re al­ways on our A game.

He con­clud­ed: I want to thank the staff and the play­ers for their com­mit­ment, and for every­thing they have done to bring the team to where it is. And hope­ful­ly, we can go fur­ther.

Thanks to my as­sis­tant coach­es, Hut­son “Bar­ber” Charles, an out­stand­ing for­mer na­tion­al mid­field­er, and Devin El­cock, the Chief of De­fense Staff, the man­agers, Colonel Charles, and the en­tire man­age­ment group that con­tin­ues to be be­hind the team. I can­not for­get the fans who come out to sup­port us game af­ter game.