It was reported by Soca Warriors Online (SWO) member Kenwyn Cooper that a past Trinidad and Tobago football player has passed away in Mr. Wayne Lewis.
His death at this time is unknown to the public and while many one the SWO (VB, Deeks, Trinitozbone to name a few) took the time to pay their respects to the Lewis family, one man in Strike Squad and former T&T head coach Everald “Gally” Cummings has came forward to personally extend his deepest condolence to the family and friends of Wayne Lewis.
Gally noted: "We are all saddened by the passing of our brother Wayne Lewis, but we will always cherish the fact that we were all privileged to have known someone like him."
"I remember back in the days when every community in Trinidad and Tobago had an abundance of talented players with national team potential and yet Wayne Lewis would have easily made any of those teams."
"When he represented Belmont Intermediate School, he was always a class act above the rest and I enjoyed seeing him play. He never said too much but was always very objective with his views and it didn't matter how friendly you all were. If he had something to say, he said it."
"Whenever he was visiting home (Trinidad) he would always made certain that I knew he was in town, but then again he could not have hide and I surely could not have missed him because he stayed with his mother at the same apartment on Dundonald Street in Port of Spain where my sister lived."
"Our families were very close since our mothers were great friends and that friendship was extended to Wayne and I who had a wonderful experience on the football field playing alongside each other for our community team, Glory Guys."
"We did a lot of individual training together at the Queen's Park Savannah on a daily basis back then. I can still see the smile on his face today, the laughter during games when we would off balance opposing defenders and send them in a different direction, Wayne and I would laugh and enjoy every moment on the field."
"I remembered one Sunday in the morning when we where playing a game and Wayne dribbled two defenders and set me up for a shot on goal with a heel pass which saw an empty net because the goalkeeper ducked, he knew he could not have saved my shot, we combined well and have a deep understanding."
"In my personal opinion I felt that Wayne should have been on that 1973 T&T team that went to Haiti because that team consisted mainly of players from the 1972 era that played against Santos from Brazil with Brazil legend Pele on their team at the Queen's Park Oval, of which Wayne was a part of."
"He was like my little brother who I am going to sadly miss but I will always cherish and hold on to those precious moments we shared on and off the playing field, ended Gally."
Some 42 years ago on November 2 that Belmont Secondary School wrote their name into the history books of local football. On that day in 1969 at the Queen’s Park Oval, the Belmont-based school became the first of their ilk to win the coveted Inter-Col title.
Skipper Gordon “Dudley” Husbands, Wayne Lewis, Lloyd Noel, Gregory Trujillo and Martin Harewood were all instrumental for Belmont’s successful season.
Anyone who were there to witness the match live would not have forgotten one of their biggest games against none other than rivals St Mary's College. They faced the highly favoured St Mary’s College in a game which was to decide the league title at Fatima ground.
Belmont Secondary was atop of the standings with 20 points with “The Saints” one point behind and needing victory to wrest the title.
What a game it turned out to be as Belmont met the challenge head-on, matching every goal “The Saints” scored. Alvin Henderson, scored twice for “The Saints” and the late Luciano Woodley got the other goal.
This did not deter Belmont Secondary, however, as they refused to cave in. Each time St Mary’s scored Wayne Lewis single-handedly replied. Three times he booted the ball into the net to notch up the scores.
And Lewis’ exploits not only earned him the Man of the Match accolade, but his team the one point needed to lift the league title to go with the Inter-Col to clinch a historic double.
To this day, Belmont and St Mary's still got at it, last July Wayne made an appearance for Belmont in a match versus St Mary’s at a commemorative Old Boys match on CIC ground. Other players involved were; Brian Ghent, Ken Butcher, Errol Nero, Winfield St Hill, Lance John, Ian Bain, Kelvin Lawrence, Basil Smith, Alvin Henderson, the late Gregory Trujillo and George Romano.
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