“We wonder if they in power recognise the ranking the country receives when our athletes excel on the world stage, or the joy we feel when we achieve a great game?

“All over the country have stadiums.

“They put two back-to-back at Couva and Marabella but nothing for Point.

“It is as if they don’t want Point people to have anything; as if they don’t want Point people to progress.”

One youth cited as an example of being discourages from getting into sport. His younger sister and her teammates on the Cedros Composite netball team must pay to use the Point Fortin indoor facility for practice.

Meanwhile, at Mahaica Oval, athletes, footballers and cricketers have had to share limited space throughout the years.

“There is even a law allowing footballers full use for half-year and athletes and cricketers share it for the next half.

“How could man excel at their game if they are allowed to practice only half-year?

“That set-up is designed to cause players to lose interest in sport. But we still do well.

“Some of the guys ‘Coachie’ worked with got football scholarships; some are playing football in foreign.

“Nkosi Blackman, who scored a super goal for us in the World Cup Under-17 held here is trained by ‘Coachie’.”

So, too, are Anthony Rougier, Reynold Carrington, Keino Thomas, Andre Toussaint, Atiba Charles and others.

It is time to give us a decent facility to train.

“We are thankful to ‘Coachie’ and all the Point Fortin seniors like Lawrence St. Hilaire, Bunch Murray and others who gave of their time and their skills to train us.”

Many Point athletes have done well through the years.

Some have received athletic scholarships and are living abroad.

“We even had an Olympian in Alvin Daniel; he also coaches the youngsters in track and field.

“Since I was a little boy they put up poles in the Mahaica Oval for electricity, the poles are still standing there without the supply.

“The grounds are still poorly kept as if those who are responsible don’t have a clue about what is required or just don’t care.”

Nedd McCree former captain and coach of PFCC’s cricket team for several years, agrees that much more could be done to encourage Point athletes.

“Quite apart from the fact that sport is multi-billion dollar business, it is incomparable in terms of galvanising our community and society,” he said.

“The formal leadership of the country must value that, they must have an appreciation for it, a genuine passion and love for people and sports, a vision for the development of sports and an interest in the development of people and sports.

“It is only that, that would cause them to use their authority and influence and technical and financial resources to engender development of the young people and their sports,” he said.

“The leadership needs also to forge and build a good relationship with the various sporting fraternities to bring life and raise the standard of sport by doing what is needed to support sport.

“In Point Fortin, we have learnt by sad experience that we cannot depend on the business community to support sport.

Often in the past, sport teams have requested even the banks to support some sporting event and the banks responded by sending a cheque for $75 or something like that.

“To pre-empt the Point Fortin community from going to the edge, the schools must be seen as high growth area and the technical, financial and infrastructure resources of our community must be made available as a matter of urgency to develop sport.