Caledonia AIA suffered a blow ahead of pre-season with Trinidad and Tobago U-23 players Daniel Cyrus and Jean-Luc Rochford returning to Santa Rosa FC after their one-season loan agreement at the Morvant/Laventille club.
However longstanding Caledonia coach Jamaal Shabazz was delighted to mention this week, a few teenaged names in Shaquille Smith, Keron Bethelmy and Adisa Roberts as part of his 2011-2012 pre-season training squad—an opportunity for the young players to join the first team this season.
“We have lost Daniel Cyrus and Jean-Luc Rochford,” said Shabazz in a somewhat disappointed tone. “They were on loan for the last season from Santa Rosa and have returned to that club possibly to do something different in terms of their careers.”
“We are just about into our third week of preparations and are looking ahead to our first practice match,” Shabazz said on Thursday morning during one of his sessions at the Hasely Crawford Stadium training ground, when quizzed about his team’s preparations ahead of the Friday 19 August TT Pro League season start.
“The players coming in from the U19 squad certainly show the potential and the proof in the pudding is the eating,” continued the ever charismatic Caledonia coach. “We’ve seen teams like Jabloteh under Terry Fenwick not afraid to throw youngsters into the deep end and we have seen players like Joel Russell (from Jabloteh) develop like that.
“We don’t have any big signings yet,” he added. “So what we have decided, is to promote players from our U19 team of last season into our first team and currently have around seven of them training with us.”
Shabazz explained that the potential of the players would only be realized once given the opportunity.
He admitted that his club, just as most Pro League clubs, is under financial constraints. However the reason to dig into his youth teams for talent is not just a financial decision.
“It’s both ideological and financial,” Shabazz said. “The reason you have a youth team, a feeder team and our partnership with Trendsetter Hawaks is for players to move from youth smoothly into senior teams. Sometimes players don’t make the transition quickly as we would like and that forces you to look outside to bring in impact players.
“But fortunately for us, we are seeing a lot of these youngsters who are able to come in and make their mark. We have Shaquille Smith, Keron Bethelmy and young Adisa who have all shown that they are quite capable of playing at this level.”
Shabazz confirmed regulars Densill Theobald, Akim Armstrong, Sheldon Emmanuel, Stephan David, Jamaican goalkeeper Kevin Graham, Abdullah Phillips and Keon Edwards as the nucleus of Caledonia first team which would be built with the young players coming in.
“We have chosen to commit to the players that we already have under contract and as funding comes in we will add to the roster,” he explained.
The Caledonia coach also plan on making his team a bit more competitive saying, “We want to also bring in a few players to further strengthen the team and make us a bit more competitive (this season).”
Last season, Shabazz guided the Morvant/Laventille club to its debut in the Caribbean Football Union Club Championship following a club high second position finish in the Digicel Pro League Championship.