As Trinidad and To­ba­go gears up for 2025, it’s time to re­flect on what we can do dif­fer­ent­ly to re­vive the pipeline of sport­ing great­ness in our twin-is­land na­tion. Dwight Yorke, Rus­sell Lat­apy, and count­less oth­er ath­letes who be­came house­hold names didn’t emerge by chance—they were the prod­ucts of vi­brant grass­roots pro­grams, sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ties, and un­re­lent­ing de­ter­mi­na­tion. These icons were born in places like Canaan in To­ba­go, Care­nage, Point Fortin, and Ari­ma, com­mu­ni­ties that once stood as breed­ing grounds for raw tal­ent.

The sto­ries of Stern John, Kevin Moli­no, Nicholas Pooran, Dwayne Bra­vo, Bri­an Lara, and oth­ers re­mind us of what is pos­si­ble when raw tal­ent is nur­tured and giv­en the right op­por­tu­ni­ties. These leg­ends came from hum­ble be­gin­nings in dif­fer­ent cor­ners of our twin-is­land na­tion, fu­elled by pas­sion, com­mu­ni­ty sup­port, and a deep love for the game. But what can we do dif­fer­ent­ly now to en­sure a brighter fu­ture for our next gen­er­a­tion of ath­letes?

To­day, those com­mu­ni­ties still brim with po­ten­tial, but they lack the re­sources and struc­tured pro­grams to un­lock it ful­ly. The ques­tion we must ask our­selves is this: How can Trinidad and To­ba­go en­sure that the grass re­mains green for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions of ath­letes?

The lega­cy of lo­cal

sport­ing clubs

Care­nage is syn­ony­mous with foot­ball bril­liance, pro­duc­ing tal­ents who lit up lo­cal leagues be­fore step­ping on­to in­ter­na­tion­al stages. Point Fortin’s rep­u­ta­tion as a foot­ball pow­er­house stems from its tight-knit com­mu­ni­ty and deep pas­sion for the sport, show­cased in grass­roots tour­na­ments and in­ter-vil­lage match­es. Ari­ma, with its bustling fields and rich cul­ture, has sim­i­lar­ly been a cor­ner­stone of play­er de­vel­op­ment.

These com­mu­ni­ties were more than places to play—they were cru­cibles of men­tor­ship. Coach­es dou­bled as fa­ther fig­ures, el­ders in­stilled dis­ci­pline, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers ral­lied be­hind young play­ers. The fields may not have been pris­tine, but the spir­it was un­break­able.

Fast-for­ward to to­day, and those same fields face ne­glect. Op­por­tu­ni­ties for young play­ers to par­tic­i­pate in struc­tured com­pe­ti­tions have dwin­dled, and the sup­port sys­tems that pro­pelled Yorke and Lat­apy are fray­ing.

What can we learn from oth­ers?

Glob­al­ly, na­tions have tak­en bold steps to reimag­ine grass­roots de­vel­op­ment. Ice­land, with a pop­u­la­tion of just 376,000, im­ple­ment­ed a na­tion­wide pro­gram to pro­vide world-class coach­ing at the youth lev­el, cou­pled with ac­ces­si­ble in­door fa­cil­i­ties. The re­sult? A na­tion­al team that qual­i­fied for the World Cup in 2018 and a steady stream of tal­ent feed­ing in­to Eu­rope’s top leagues.

Coun­tries like Ice­land and Bel­gium have be­come case stud­ies in grass­roots suc­cess. Ice­land en­sured there are li­censed coach­es at every lev­el.

Bel­gium rev­o­lu­tionised its foot­ball by fo­cus­ing on youth acad­e­mies, cre­at­ing a gen­er­a­tion of world-class play­ers like Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku.

Clos­er to home, Ja­maica’s com­mit­ment to grass­roots track and field pro­grams has made it the glob­al cap­i­tal of sprint­ing. These suc­cess sto­ries demon­strate that it’s not about size or re­sources—it’s about cre­at­ing sys­tems that work. Cu­ba al­so is a na­tion that has pro­duced lots of suc­cess sto­ries de­spite its strug­gles.

Yorke’s rise from Canaan, To­ba­go, to the Pre­mier League, and Lat­apy’s jour­ney from Laven­tille to Eu­ro­pean foot­ball, were prod­ucts of de­ter­mi­na­tion and lo­cal com­mu­ni­ty in­volve­ment. Care­nage and Point Fortin, known for their rich sport­ing cul­ture, have pro­duced nu­mer­ous tal­ent­ed ath­letes. These com­mu­ni­ties thrived on grass­roots pro­grams, in­for­mal play­ing fields, and men­tor­ship from lo­cal coach­es and per­sons on the ground. It was not al­ways about hand­outs and pho­to ops.

But the sport­ing land­scape has changed. To­day, play­ers face new chal­lenges—less ac­cess to well-main­tained and ad­vanced fa­cil­i­ties, few­er struc­tured pro­grams, and grow­ing com­pe­ti­tion on the in­ter­na­tion­al and re­gion­al stage.

The TTFA’s re­cent col­lab­o­ra­tion with CON­CA­CAF’s Gen­er­a­tion Amaz­ing pro­gram of­fers an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­boot grass­roots foot­ball in T&T. This ini­tia­tive em­pha­sis­es youth em­pow­er­ment through sports, fo­cus­ing on un­der­served com­mu­ni­ties. By ex­pand­ing this pro­gram and align­ing it with na­tion­al goals, we can achieve tan­gi­ble re­sults.

2025 roadmap for suc­cess

Re­viv­ing lo­cal fields—The dusty pitch­es of Care­nage, Point Fortin, and Ari­ma must be re­vived. Part­ner­ing with lo­cal cor­po­ra­tions and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions can fund up­grades to com­mu­ni­ty fields, mak­ing them safe and ac­ces­si­ble.

Struc­tured youth leagues—En­hance zon­al youth leagues to en­sure every child has a plat­form to com­pete and grow. Com­mu­ni­ty Coach­es as cat­a­lysts—Train and cer­ti­fy lo­cal coach­es to be­come men­tors and scouts. Their role ex­tends be­yond tac­tics—they must in­spire dis­ci­pline, team­work, and am­bi­tion.

De­vel­op coach­ing ex­per­tise— Fol­low Ice­land’s mod­el by en­sur­ing li­censed coach­es at every lev­el, from pri­ma­ry schools to club acad­e­mies. Coach­ing is as cru­cial as tal­ent, and in­vest­ing in our lo­cal men­tors will pay div­i­dends. The TTFA has em­barked on a na­tion­wide coach ed­u­ca­tion dri­ve, but as­sess­ments and suf­fi­cient op­por­tu­ni­ties must be a pri­or­i­ty.

Cel­e­brate our icons —Yorke, Lat­apy, and oth­ers should play ac­tive roles in grass­roots de­vel­op­ment. Imag­ine a “Leg­ends Tour” where these icons vis­it com­mu­ni­ties to in­spire the next gen­er­a­tion.

A new vi­sion for lo­cal sport

Imag­ine a Trinidad and To­ba­go where foot­ball fields in Ma­yaro, Cou­va, and San Juan bus­tle with young tal­ent hon­ing their skills un­der the watch­ful eyes of cer­ti­fied coach­es. Pic­ture com­mu­ni­ty leagues draw­ing crowds and en­er­gis­ing neigh­bour­hoods every week­end. En­vi­sion a na­tion where every child with a dream has the tools and sup­port to chase it.

Grass­roots de­vel­op­ment isn’t just about build­ing ath­letes—it’s about nur­tur­ing pride, dis­ci­pline, and am­bi­tion with­in our com­mu­ni­ties. Pro­grams like Gen­er­a­tion Amaz­ing can be the cat­a­lyst for this trans­for­ma­tion, but on­ly if we com­mit to long-term in­vest­ment and in­no­va­tion.

Rein­vest in Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­grammes - Re­vi­talise sport­ing hubs in Care­nage, Pe­nal, Ply­mouth, and Ari­ma. Pro­vide com­mu­ni­ties with up­dat­ed fa­cil­i­ties, men­tor­ship pro­grammes, and reg­u­lar tour­na­ments to keep young play­ers en­gaged. We tend to be­lieve that be­cause they are known as cities, San Fer­nan­do and Port-of-Spain are not men­tioned as much in these cam­paigns, but these are mas­sive catch­ment ar­eas.

In­te­grate sports and ed­u­ca­tion— Strength­en part­ner­ships be­tween schools and sport­ing bod­ies. En­cour­age pro­grams that al­low stu­dent-ath­letes to bal­ance aca­d­e­mics and train­ing. We like to talk about this, but not enough ev­i­dence of ac­tion is seen here.

Lever­age tech­nol­o­gy—More Use da­ta an­a­lyt­ics and video analy­sis to iden­ti­fy tal­ent ear­ly and track their de­vel­op­ment.

Green­er grass awaits

The grass was green­er in the days of Yorke and Lat­apy be­cause it was wa­tered by com­mu­ni­ties, coach­es, and a na­tion that be­lieved in its youth. In 2025, we have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make it even green­er by reimag­in­ing how we de­vel­op tal­ent in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The jour­ney from Care­nage, Point Fortin, or Ari­ma to the world stage must no longer be a sto­ry of ex­cep­tion­al odds—it should be­come the norm. To­geth­er, with Cor­po­rate T&T play­ing its part, we can en­sure that the next gen­er­a­tion of sport­ing icons doesn’t just dream of great­ness but achieves it. 

The sto­ries of Yorke, Lat­apy, John, Sha­ka His­lop, Gal­ly Cum­mings, Alvin Corneal, and oth­er T&T icons show us that great­ness be­gins at the grass­roots.

By re­think­ing our ap­proach in 2025 and lever­ag­ing pro­grammes like Gen­er­a­tion Amaz­ing, we can en­sure that every child in Trinidad and To­ba­go has the chance to dream, train, and suc­ceed. 

The road ahead re­quires com­mit­ment, but the po­ten­tial is bound­less. As we look to­ward a new year, let’s ho­n­our the lega­cy of our past while build­ing a sys­tem that nur­tures the stars of to­mor­row. This is al­so a World Cup qual­i­fy­ing year with bound­less op­por­tu­ni­ties ahead.

This isn’t just about pro­duc­ing ath­letes; it’s about trans­form­ing lives and in­spir­ing a na­tion.