Strik­ers Der­rel ‘Zoom Zoom’ Gar­cia and Niki­ta Go­sine were yes­ter­day vot­ed the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League’s (SS­FL) Play­ers of the Year for the 2024 sea­son when the SS­FL held its Awards and Dis­tri­b­u­tion Func­tion at the Cou­va/Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce on Thurs­day.

Both were al­so named among the re­spec­tive Boys’ and Girls’ All-Star teams, as well as among the top six play­ers for the sea­son.

Gar­cia cre­at­ed a ma­jor stir on the field with 19 goals in lead­ing the La Ro­maine Li­ons of St Bene­dict’s Col­lege to the South Zone In­ter­Col ti­tle and the Co­ca-Co­la Na­tion­al In­ter­Col ti­tle, de­spite hav­ing goals tak­en away from him dur­ing the sea­son for im­prop­er­ly be­ing reg­is­tered in the ear­ly part of the sea­son.

Re­ferred to pop­u­lar­ly as ‘Zoom Zoom’, Gar­cia’s sub­lime skills on the foot­ball field earned him a pick on the coun­try’s se­nior na­tion­al team un­der coach Dwight Yorke, and he is now a stand­out play­er in the pro­fes­sion­al T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League’s Tier 1 out­fit, San Juan Jabloteh, which will be con­test­ing a place in the Con­ca­caf Play­offs lat­er this year.

Go­sine, marked by lo­cal foot­ball pun­dits as a play­er to watch, scored over 40 goals last sea­son as she spear­head­ed Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School’s vic­to­ries of the South Zone Girls In­ter­Col crown, as well as the South Zone Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion ti­tle and the Un­der-15 South Zone Knock-Out and League ti­tles.

The turnout brought out scores of play­ers among a host of dig­ni­taries, such as Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Michael Dowlat, a for­mer prin­ci­pal of Na­pari­ma Col­lege; SS­FL pres­i­dent Merere Gon­za­les; Jame­son Rigues, third vice pres­i­dent of the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion; Ker­ry Gib­bons, head of cre­ative pro­duc­tion at Sports­Max; and Fofi George, as­sis­tant man­ag­er of spon­sor­ship, part­ner­ships and phil­an­thropy.

Dowlat, whose min­istry came to the cen­tre of at­ten­tion when Gar­cia left school for foot­ball tri­als in Spain, un­known to school and Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cials, urged the stu­dent-ath­letes to think glob­al­ly but act lo­cal­ly, say­ing the sky is the lim­it for the young ath­letes.

“To­day is a day for cel­e­bra­tion, but our fo­cus should be the val­ues that are added to our stu­dents/ath­letes. What does foot­ball in­stil? It in­stils team­work, per­se­ver­ance, lead­er­ship and re­silience, and I want all of our stu­dents who are here to take this phrase with you – think glob­al and act lo­cal,’ Dowlat said.

“When you play in school, and when you train, think of your­self as be­ing on an in­ter­na­tion­al field. With the me­dia, with the in­ter­net, with so­cial me­dia, every time you go out, you rep­re­sent your com­mu­ni­ty, you rep­re­sent your school, you rep­re­sent the league, you rep­re­sent T&T, and I want to say to all of you, our stu­dent-ath­letes, that I re­mem­ber a cou­ple of stu­dents in my time when I was prin­ci­pal of Na­pari­ma Col­lege, one young man, his name is Nicholas Paul, and I think he was in 2012; he was part of the suc­cess­ful 2020 Un­der-16 In­ter­Col team, and now he has gone on to be one of the best cy­clists in the world.”

He con­clud­ed that sec­ondary school foot­ball is just one ex­am­ple of so many stu­dent/ath­letes who can go on to so many oth­er ar­eas of ex­cel­lence, and not just na­tion­al­ly but in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.”

HO­N­OUR ROLL

SS­FL Zone and Na­tion­al ho­n­our roll:

Form One (Un­der-13 Boys) Di­vi­sion:

Knock­out:

East Zone: Trin­i­ty Col­lege East

North Zone: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

South Zone: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary

League:

Cen­tral Zone: Ch­agua­nas North Sec­ondary

East Zone: St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary

North Zone: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

South Zone: Point Fortin West Sec­ondary

Na­tion­al win­ner: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

Gi­ants (Un­der-14 Boys) Di­vi­sion:

Knock­out:

East Zone: El Do­ra­do West Sec­ondary

North Zone: Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

South Zone: Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege

League: :

Cen­tral Zone: Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary

East Zone: Holy Cross Col­lege

North Zone: Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka

South Zone: Na­pari­ma Col­lege

Na­tion­al win­ner: Na­pari­ma Col­lege

Girls Un­der-15 Di­vi­sion:

Knock­out:

East Zone: Five Rivers Sec­ondary

North Zone: In­ter­na­tion­al School POS

South Zone: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary

League:

East Zone: Five Rivers Sec­ondary

North Zone: St Joseph Con­vent

South Zone: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary

Na­tion­al win­ner: )Pleas­antville Sec­ondary

Ju­nior (Un­der-16 Boys) Di­vi­sion:

Knock­out:

East Zone: Ari­ma North Sec­ondary

North Zone: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

South Zone: Na­pari­ma Col­lege

League:

Cen­tral Zone: Ch­agua­nas North Sec­ondary

East Zone: Hillview Col­lege

North Zone: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

South Zone: St Bene­dict’s Col­lege

Na­tion­al win­ner: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

Se­nior (Un­der-20 Girls) Di­vi­sion:

Knock­out:

East Zone: San Juan North Sec­ondary

South Zone: St Stephen’s Col­lege

League: :

East Zone: St Joseph’s Sec­ondary

South Zone: St Stephen’s Col­lege

Se­nior (Un­der-20 Boys) Di­vi­sion:

Knock­out:

East Zone: Ari­ma North Sec­ondary

North Zone: Mal­ick Sec­ondary

South Zone: St Bene­dict’s Col­lege

League:

Cen­tral Zone: Cunu­pia Sec­ondary

East Zone: San Juan North Sec­ondary

North Zone: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

South Zone: St Bene­dict’s Col­lege

Na­tion­al win­ner: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

Girls Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion:

League:

Cen­tral Zone: Mir­a­cle Min­istries PHS

East Zone: Five Rivers Sec­ondary

North Zone: St. Joseph’s Con­vent PoS

South Zone: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary

To­ba­go Zone: Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary

Na­tion­al Big Five: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary

Boys Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion:

League:

Cen­tral Zone: Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary

East Zone: Hillview Sec­ondary

North Zone: Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka

South Zone: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary

To­ba­go Zone: Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary

Na­tion­al Big Five: Cara­pichaima East Sec­ondary

Open­ing Game: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

Pre­mier Di­vi­sion League: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

Girls In­ter­col:

Cen­tral Zone: Mir­a­cle Min­istries PHS

East Zone: San Juan North Sec­ondary

North Zone: St Joseph’s Con­vent PoS

South Zone: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary

To­ba­go Zone: Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary

Na­tion­al win­ner: St Joseph’s Con­vent PoS

Boys In­ter­col:

Cen­tral Zone: Mir­a­cle Min­istries PHS

East Zone: San Juan North Sec­ondary

North Zone: Fa­ti­ma Col­lege

South Zone: St Bene­dict’s Col­lege

To­ba­go Zone: Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary

Na­tion­al win­ner: St Bene­dict’s Col­lege